307. Italy, Literature, and Learning Connections

Brave Writer

Julie Bogart and Melissa Wiley

Arts, Kids & Family, Education, Books, Education For Kids

4.8 • 927 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Julie is back from her two-week trip to Italy (with a quick stop in Copenhagen!) and brings stories that weave together travel, literature, and layered learning. From visiting her aunt on the Mediterranean coast to finally stepping inside Florence’s Santa Croce—20 years after promising herself she would—Julie shares how books like A Room with a View transform sightseeing into soul-deep experiences.

She and Melissa explore how these kinds of connections—between story, place, and lived experience—are the essence of meaningful education. You’ll also hear about unexploded WWII bombs in a train station, the Leaning Tower of Pisa’s surprising wonder, naked bungee-jumping in Denmark, and a serendipitous plane conversation that led to the discovery of a century-old “living book.”

This episode is a reminder to travel, talk to strangers, and create opportunities for our kids (and ourselves) to encounter the world twice: once through story, and once in real life.

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Produced by NOVA

Transcript

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0:50.1	Julie, you're back.
0:52.2	Ciao, Bella.
0:56.8	I am back. Ciao Bella. I am back. Oh my gosh. Two weeks away and you held down the fort beautifully on the podcast.
1:03.9	Hello to everybody. It is amazing to be back. It was equally amazing to be gone.
1:12.4	Well, since you got back just last night, I haven't heard the whole download about your trip.
1:17.8	So I'm really excited that I get to hear all about it along with our listeners.
1:22.4	Well, yeah. So for everyone tuning in, I spent the last two weeks in Italy, and I capped off the trip with a quick
1:30.1	two-night stay in Copenhagen in Denmark. The original goal of the trip was to go see my mother's
1:38.6	youngest sister. I have an aunt who's only six years older than me, and she married an Italian years ago when she was young,
1:47.3	had been an exchange student in Rome, fell in love, they got married. They lived in the States for a few
1:54.0	years, and then he got home sick. So they moved to Italy. And since then, she's had two kids,
1:59.6	and they're the ages of my kids, even though
	...

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