Ciao, tutti! That’s how you say, “hello, everyone,” in Italian! My name is Elyssa, and I am from Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia. In college, I studied computer science and art history, which is what made me want to live in Italy. For fun, I enjoy reading, kayaking, and playing with my dogs, Max and Ruby!
I live and work in Florence, Italy. I am a computer scientist and work with paintings from the Middle Ages, which means that they are over 500 years old! I collect information about the paintings in a lab to try to figure out who painted them with the code that I write. This is called “noninvasive technical analysis,” which is just a fancy way of saying that I use machines to gather information about artwork without hurting the artwork at all. I wanted to live in Florence so that I could work with these paintings in person, and so that I could learn how to use all of the different lab equipment to collect data about them. Did you know that you can x-ray a painting to see all of the artist’s sketches they drew as an outline for the paint?
My favorite things to do in Italy so far are walking around the city’s small cobblestone streets, taking pictures of all of the amazing artwork here, and eating lots of pizza, of course! I’m excited to share my travels with you!
