Eckerd College’s volleyball team, coaches and Italian Instructor Kristy Cardellio, Ph.D., traveled to Rome and Florence, Italy, as a part of a Spring-into-Summer course called Investigating Culture in Italy.
There were 551 steps—narrow and spiraling—between the ground floor of Rome’s St. Peter’s Basilica and the dome above.
Nyla Muskovin and her Eckerd College volleyball teammates decided to challenge themselves with the trek to the top during a Spring-into-Summer trip to Italy in early August.
“As a collegiate athlete, being tall like this, you had to go, like, hug your shoulders in, and then as you get up the Basilica, the dome turns, so the walls turn and the stairs turn, and you don’t know if you’re turning or if the walls are turning,” says the senior interdisciplinary arts and animal studies student from Fraser, Michigan.
The trek was one of many memories made on the team’s journey to Rome and Florence for Associate Professor of International Business Virginie Khare’s Investigating Culture in Italy course. The class dove into the finer points of Italian culture, including their differences in business operations and marketing. A semester in the classroom prepared the volleyball team, coaches and Italian Instructor Kristy Cardellio, Ph.D., for a 10-day adventure in the Old World. In between the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, students talked to local business owners and bonded as a team.
“I think there’s something special about the community that a team creates … it’s super special being able to be with those girls,” Nyla explains.
Eckerd Athletics has worked with the Office of Global Education to create this opportunity for several teams a year to earn their global perspective credits and study abroad. In 2026, softball and baseball will travel to Australia and women’s basketball will journey to Italy.
“It’s really hard for athletes to go abroad, usually, because they train in August, January and early summer,” says Global Education Director Laura Semenow. “If they decide to do a semester-long program, they might miss their entire season. This program helps them to participate in global education and work within their team and training schedule.”
The volleyball team had two business meetings—one in Rome and one in Florence. Kinga Michalska, a senior visual arts student from Jaroslaw, Poland, missed the first meeting because of a sudden downpour that drenched her en route. Still, she was impressed by the ecotourism company she was introduced to in Florence. The company used art icons to remind tourists to be good stewards of the area they were visiting, instead of posting signs in multiple languages.
“It was like five characters, with a pigeon and other icons, and every character was connected to a message about littering or something like that,” Kinga recalls.
The highlight of the trip, though, was seeing Italian culture up close.
“A lot of our course content was just culture immersion,” Nyla says. “So whenever we had free time to go find a meal, that was something that felt incorporated into our course.
Tower of Pisa
“The most interesting thing for me was going to the Galleria Borghese,” she adds. “That’s a place that not a lot of people have access to, and baroque art is something that’s so cool to me. The color palettes that they use … it’s just super dynamic.”
Ultimately, while the team bonded over weight lifting at a Roman Planet Fitness and tasting pizzas unlike any they’d sampled before. Their worldview broadened to include a possible life playing volleyball professionally—or just living—in Italy.
“I want to go back to Poland [after graduation],” Kinga explains. “Italy opened my mind, so maybe I don’t have to stay in Poland. Maybe I can travel and maybe play in different countries, because it’s like such a different culture than [ours] in Poland. So I can experience more. So right now, I’m more open to going somewhere abroad, not just in Poland.”
In the short term, the trip also will have positive effects on the volleyball season.
“I think definitely, with all of our returners, it’s already translated through,” Nyla says. “Going to a different country with someone is a lot. Having to walk that much with another person and learn how another person lives … it automatically puts you closer to those people.”
