Deepak Unnikrishnan has given CFIC students a rule-breaking assignment, The Hunt, made of many different tasks and aimed at “accepting the unknown, while risking something personal”, their names or their stories.

Summary of the tasks:

1. Approach a seller of tourist trinkets, introduce yourself and ask for this person’s name and comfort food.  Ask where to shop for the ingredients of said food and optionally prepare it and share it.

2. Respectfully following a group of tourists so as to learn what is important to them while they wander around Venice, and to wonder about their lives.

3. Find a student-budget-friendly restaurant you have never been to, populated by locals – that is, those you consider local. Spend some time there and, if possible, wonder about the meaning of the term “history”.

4. Wander around, walking through the city, until the last waterbus for San Servolo is set to leave. Let it be a moment of quiet, no instructions.

5. As Ss. Maria e Donato is a church famous for the bones of a dragon slain by a saint, go to Murano and assume you would like to commission a piece of glass artwork that best represents this legend. Why would you choose a specific master or house?