Florence Study Abroad
On September 7, 2019, I left San Francisco International for Rome Fiumicino Airport. For 3 months and some change, I would be studying abroad in Florence, Italy. I had been looking forward to this since I got to Gonzaga. After all, this was one of the main reasons I chose Gonzaga in the first place. I was not disappointed.
My time abroad consisted of three main things: School, travel, and exploring/experiencing the city of Florence. School was fairly straightforward, and well, easy. The classes in my program were significantly easier than those back at Gonzaga. (Don’t tell Gonzaga.) I only took four classes; Italian 301 and 350, Small Business, and the Philosophy of Ethics. That means I had a lot of time for the other two activities.
Of the 12 weekends I was there I traveled 6 of them, with one of those including all of Thanksgiving week. I traveled to, in order, Barcelona, Amsterdam, five cities in Switzerland, Paris, and Prague. Oh, and some day trips to places like Rome and Venice. I wrote a post about each of these trips, which can be found here, but out of all of these places, Amsterdam was the place I loved the most.
I spent the majority of my time though exploring Florence. One of my favorite parts was going out with friends and trying new restaurants or gelato places or a cool view that we heard about. Gonzaga also had a lot of programs that got us into the city. For example, I worked as a tour guide in the Duomo, a famous basilica in Florence. A couple of my classes took us on tours of the city, showing places of history or interesting shops like a fifth-generation metalworker shop or a place that does mosaic paintings. However, my favorite thing to do was a Gonzaga program called English for Pasta. Every Tuesday, a friend and I would take a 20-minute bus ride deep into Florence to meet with an Italian family. For the first hour, we would play games with the kids while only speaking English. However, for the rest of the night, we could only speak Italian. In exchange, they made us traditional Italian dishes and we got to eat dinner with them. I probably learned the most during these nights, and my host family became my second family. I miss them.
Now I am back. Leaving was the most bittersweet, polarizing experience I have ever felt. Half of me wanted to spend the rest of my life there, the other wanted to get my ass home. Being home has allowed me to look back at the experience from afar, (literally) and I have some reflections on the experience. Before that, it must be understood is that there is going to be an obvious bias here. I am Italian, sometimes pretentiously so. I grew up in a family that identified as such, and it is something I am very proud of. So, I may be looking back here with rose-colored glasses.
Italy is a contradicting country. Everything that makes the country special, the culture and traditions, the history and art, the food, don’t forget about the food, is also the very things that holds it back. An example of this is window shutters. In Florence, every building must have window shutters so that the city maintains its traditional look. It looks great, however, that means no windows have screens, and mosquitos can enter as they please. We fought a losing war with mosquitos all semester.
Another thing that I found interesting if not a little bit sad is how the identity of Italy’s cities is changing. Italy’s economy is not doing well, and unemployment is at an all-time high. That means most Italians don’t actually live in Florence or other big touristy cities because of the cost of living. Rather they live in the outskirts and commute in, while Florence and similar cities pivot towards the tourist. Every other person you met/saw on the street was a tourist, most likely not even being able to speak Italian.
This all being said, the times when I did experience the true Italian culture, it was incredible. Italy is a passionate place. They are proud of their culture and country and love to share it. They are fiercely loving and protective of their family members. My Italian family would talk for hours on the history of the dish they made or proudly talk about their children’s basketball team and dance recitals. I saw a lot of what I loved about my own family in the families I was lucky enough to get to know while there.
Regarding the experience as a whole, I learned more this semester than I did for the rest of my college career. Seeing all those different ways of life is eye-opening. I wish there was a less cliché way to describe that feeling but traveling around Italy and the rest of Europe I learned so much, about my friends, myself, and different and better ways of doing things. Amsterdam and Switzerland showed me that public transportation can work, can even be better than cars. Barcelona opened my eyes to foods my uncultured ass didn’t even know existed. I didn’t even know Prague existed before this trip, and it was one of the most alien yet welcoming cultures I visited.
It seems surreal now. That I woke up and lived in one of the most famous cities in the world, where people like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo lived. We got drinks in the shadows of Palazzo Vecchio, ate dinner right across the street from the Duomo and played poker on a balcony overlooking the city. If money was not a problem and my friends and family were nearby, I could have lived there forever. Until next time.
If you would like to read up on the entirety of my time there, I created a blog just for that trip. You can find it through one of the buttons below.
If you are going abroad, I created a google maps link with notes of all the places that either my friends and I found or were on one of the many lists alumni of the program have made. You can find it here. Make sure to try Sandwichic.