Reflections by AEF Students After Visiting Il Memoriale delle Deportazioni in Florence
On October 10th, 2025, students from Professor Floarea Vîrban’s History class visited Il Memoriale delle Deportazioni, also known as Il Memoriale Italiano di Auschwitz, an immersive and emotional space dedicated to memory, responsibility, and human dignity.
This week, rightoutside Accademia Europea di Firenze in Via Cavour, something unexpected caught our attention.A small table. A typewriter. And a simple idea: sit down, talk… and receive a poem.
Over the last two and a half weeks, a few words have taken on great importance in my vocabulary. Those include a rushed “Grazie!” when someone points me in the correct direction, a confidently uttered “Buongiorno!” or “Buonasera!” in greeting after taking a second to check on the time, and the most important word: a timid and rushed “Scusa” to get through almost any interaction. Just like in English, I unfortunately abuse the word “sorry” when speaking Italian.
From March 9 to March 12, 2026, Accademia Europea di Firenze hosted the second edition of its Sustainability Week, a four-day immersive experience that brought environmental and cultural responsibility to the center of academic life.More than just a series of events, the Sustainability Weekrepresented a meaningful step forward in AEF’s long-term commitment to sustainability as a lived, shared, and interdisciplinary practice.
AEF Sustainability Week 2026:
Deepening Commitment to Environmental and Cultural Responsibility
March 9–12, 2026 | Florence, Italy
From March 9 to March 12, 2026, Accademia Europea di Firenze willhostits second annualSustainability Week, an immersive four-day event that brings environmental responsibility to the heart of education.This year’s Sustainability Week reflects AEF’s deepening commitment to sustainability not as a slogan, but as a lived experience across disciplines, daily practices, and global perspectives.
