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.
Prague
Prague was not what I expected. To be honest, I had never heard of Prague until right before I left for abroad. A friend who had gone the semester right before had said that it was her favorite place she visited, and I had to look it up. The last free weekend of abroad one of my best friends and I decided to visit some of his hometown buddies who had been studying there all semester. I only got two nights out of the city, but I will go on record saying that Prague was at least top three out of the places I visited all trip.
My friend and I left right after our 9 o clock class on Thursday. We may have skipped our philosophy class. After a small layover in Germany, we arrived in Prague late in the afternoon meeting his friends at the airport. The first night we saw the Christmas markets. Every other stall has mulled honey wine. I now like mulled honey wine. They showed us all the landmarks, the main square, the observation tower, and the local casino of course. It was cold as hell though, like 20 degrees out, so we went back to the apartment and played poker and drinking games until bed.
The next day we spent the day walking around the city. We got hot dogs for breakfast, went to the overlook of the city, had some more mulled wine, and then went to the castle. The castle was immense, the biggest I have ever seen. (It is important to note that I have not seen many castles.) I actually ran into my mom’s best friend and basically my second godmother here, which was surreal. I was not expecting that.
After the castle, we went to a famous bridge, took some pictures, and found a bar. Prague is known for its beer, but I missed my watered-down American beer.
Once we had our beer jacket on, we found a train to a soccer game. The atmosphere here was incredible. It was two pretty mediocre teams, but everyone was acting a fool. There was riot police, people running around without shirts on in sub 20-degree weather and beer everywhere. It was nuts. W
e stayed until the end of regular time and then dipped to head to the main square to take part in a poker tournament. It was only a 2000 crown buy-in, which in dollars was only 20 dollars or so. Everything in Prague is much cheaper. Most of us busted early, but my best bud stayed in for a couple of hours. We actually left him there to get in line for a club, but it was a lot busier than we expected and we were unable to get in.
I left the next morning to attempt to see some family in Italy before heading home, as this was our last weekend in Europe. I was impressed with Prague; its public transportation, its architecture, organization, and beer. Would recommend this city.
Paris
I was excited about Paris. I mean it’s Paris, who wouldn’t be. But I was especially excited about this trip. The group of people I was going with were some of my favorite people. Also, as someone who grew up reading Hemingway and Fitzgerald and all the other famous early 1900s authors, Paris held a lot of expectation for me. It did not disappoint.
We all met late in the afternoon at our Airbnb, almost in the exact middle of the city. We were all coming from different places. I came from Switzerland, the girls from Prague, and another buddy of mine from London. While we were waiting for my buddy we found a bar and had some wine caught up. After my friend arrived, we walked the city for a little, but everyone was very tired and it was Thanksgiving so we got some food from a local market and made our own meal to celebrate at the Airbnb. It was a great meal, even though I burnt the pasta.
The next morning, we got to explore Paris. It is easy to see why Paris has been the inspiration and home of so many artists throughout the years. The streets are as chaotic as they are beautiful. On that first morning wandering the streets, we found the best baguettes in Paris, (according to Google) went to Notre Dame, a church nearby with stunning stained glass, and the Shakespeare and Co book shop.
After a late lunch, we spent several hours in the Louvre. Many hours. We still only saw a small bit of it. Then we had dinner. Dinner was good, the wine was better, the bill afterward …not so much. We lost track of time at dinner and had to race to the Eiffel tower to try and catch the last light show of the night. It was worth it.
The next morning, we got another late start. We rented scooters and scoot scooted all the way to the D’Orsay Museum to look at the pictures. There are a lot of famous paintings here including a few Van Goghs. Afterward, I strolled down some streets to grab some souvenirs, then I met up with the gang again to head back to the Eiffel tower to see it in the daylight. It is still very impressive in the daylight.
This was our last evening in Paris, so we decided to walk to the streets. The cold forced us into a Brassiere where I discovered spiced wine is a fine beverage. We also had a cheesecake that very well might be the best in existence. We spent the rest of the night wandering for a while before the cold overtook us and we returned to the apartment. We returned to Florence early the next morning for two more weeks of school.
Switzerland
I do not know why I decided to go to Switzerland. It wasn’t the obvious choice on how to spend the first half of my Thanksgiving break, the cheapest choice, or even the most fun choice for that matter. I could have gone to Sicily, Budapest, or Amsterdam again. For whatever reason, I decided to spend six days traveling through Switzerland, alone.
I left Florence by plane for Zurich early Saturday morning. I was to spend a few hours walking around Zurich before boarding a train sometime in the late afternoon for Luzern. To avoid lugging around a lot of baggage, I only packed what could fit into my 32L backpack. All for 10 days. Earlier in the month, I had purchased a Swiss travel pass, which theoretically allowed me transport on all Swiss trains, buses, and trams, excluding a few, as well as free entrance to many Swiss museums. This would be a problem later.
The Zurich main station let out right by the river, so I decided to follow the river down to the lake, which was about a mile away. This was my first time traveling alone, and I didn’t have any sort of plan, so I followed my feet for the first couple of hours.
Zurich might have been my favorite out of the four Swiss cities I traveled through. It was situated around a river that led to a large lake with snowcapped mountains looming in the distance. The roads followed a strict grid on the flat banks by the river, but as those banks grew into hills the city turned into a wonderful maze of alleys and walkways.
The city was a giant contradiction. McLarens and Ferraris rumbled past name-brand stores, but also welcoming firelit cafes that looked straight out of a hallmark small town. I walked along the river, through a few interesting alleys, and down their main fashion street. There were a lot of watch stores. I made my way down to the lake where while waiting to take a photo, I met a nice couple from New York that had moved to Zurich to retire. They were kind enough to recommend some attractions along my way for the next couple of days. By this time it was starting to get dark, so I decided to start heading back to the train station to grab the next train to Luzern. On the way, I stopped by the Swiss National Museum, but there was nothing of interest in there.
On the way to Luzern, I discovered that my Swiss travel pass had expired. Rather the conductor discovered it and informed me that I now owed him 37 francs. More money down the drain, which was the theme of my Swiss trip. I got to Luzern, checked in to a hostel, and walked around for a little bit to check out all the cool Christmas lights they had, but at that point, I was tired and overwhelmed from being alone and decided to hit the can.
The next day I walked around a little in the morning and then grabbed a train headed towards Mount Rigi, about an hour and a half by train. On the way up the mountain, I got to ride one of Switzerland’s famous mountain trains, which lumber up sometimes worryingly steep inclines to the peak. This train was well worth it, as the views I saw at the top incredible. I stayed at the top longer than I expected despite the wind and snow, then made the trip back to Luzern to catch the 5 o’clock train to Interlaken, where I was going to spend the next couple of days.
Interlaken is a cozier town than the big cities of Luzern and Zurich. Its population fluctuates with the tourists and primarily consists of small hotels and bed and breakfasts. I was in Interlaken for one purpose only-to skydive. Some of my friends had talked me into it, and I am glad that they did. I woke up early the morning of and walked around town for a while. There was not a lot to see, but what was there was beautiful. It was beginning to become too cold for tourists, so most of the shops were closing. I got picked up near the train station by a kind Canadian, a Korean couple, and Australian who took us to the landing strip.
The fact that I was about to jump out of a perfectly good airplane was not fully realized until they opened the sliding door at 25,000 feet and I looked down and saw nothing between me and the earth so far down below. My tandem partner and I rolled out of the plane and my brain went haywire-the rational part trying to console the irrational, adrenaline like I have never felt before. It is unique in this world.
After I got back, I crashed almost immediately without showering, waking in my clothes the next morning. I showered and checked out, grabbing a train to Geneva, my final city in Switzerland.
At this point, the burden of traveling alone was starting to weigh me down. I had only had two or three conversations in English during the entire trip, and the cultural differences were weighing me down. So much so that when I saw a Five Guys right outside the Geneva station, I broke down and my budget and paid a cheap Swiss 33 francs for a burger a fries. Switzerland is expensive. I spent the first day exploring Geneva while waiting to check into my Airbnb, but once I checked in, I did not have the energy to go out again.
The next day I tried to see the Red Cross Museum, the United Nations Building, and the Patek Phillipe Museum. I saw all of them but was only able to go inside the Red Cross museum. I spent the rest of the day walking all across the city before I retired to pack for my trip to Paris in the morning. I walked 11 miles that day. Geneva is a fine city; I just wish I was in a better mindset when I had visited. At that point, I was done with traveling and was starting to feel homesick. Switzerland is an awesome country that I think America could learn a lot from, and I hope to return one day.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam was my favorite city of my study abroad experience. I left Thursday afternoon with a few friends after school. I went with two groups to Amsterdam, but the one I was going to spend most of the time with was not going to get in until Friday night. We arrived in Amsterdam late that night, and since it was Halloween, all that we did was go out to a few bars after we checked into our hotel.
Friday morning, we got a late start. We got breakfast around 10, and then walked to a square where Amsterdam had all their best museums. A few people with foresight to reserve their tickets went to the Van Goh museum, while the rest of us grabbed tickets to the MoCo museum which featured an exhibit on the street artist Banksy. I walked away from the group for a few minutes down the street to check into my Airbnb. My favorite activity in Amsterdam was just walking around. Amsterdam personifies the satisfaction of something that works. It’s the same feeling as turning the key in your car and it humming to life, or when your computer functions just as it’s supposed to, faster even. It’s a constant synchronized order of trams, bikes, pedestrians, and then cars, all surrounded by these incredible winding streets and canals that somehow still make sense despite their randomness. It felt right. I spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering the streets with a few friends before dinner and bed.
Saturday morning my friends and I found pancakes, which made the day before it got started. After we met up with the rest of the group to tour the Heineken factory, followed by a canal tour and then pictures on a lookout point. I would definitely recommend any sort of boat ride in Amsterdam. After this, the groups split up for a while to grab dinner and chill before a pub crawl later that night. We found a place that served Dutch food, which everyone avoided and got the only American things on the menu. We all met at a bar, went a couple more, and made a few mistakes. My friends dipped after the third bar before more mistakes could be made to explore a little bit more because I left early the next morning. We saw some pretty Christmas lights, did the obligatory walk through the red light district, and then ubered back to the Airbnb, which was the end for Amsterdam for me. I would love to come back to this city sometime, maybe even live here for a while. Don’t tell my mom that though.
Barcelona
Barcelona was a strange place. Not in the sense that it weird, but in the sense that to me it was different. It was my first time in a new place, where the culture, customs, and habits were different from mine. Earlier in the semester, my friend and I had decided to pay an extraordinary amount of money to go watch the famous football game that happens annually called El Classico. The game did not happen due to protests, but we still went, and it was a good thing we did.
The flight was at 8, so my friend and I woke up at 6 to catch a taxi. The flight ended up taking off at 1 from a city an hour away due to strikes, but when the flight took off we were both on it. I was a little grumpy about the situation, but there was a Starbucks right outside my gate when I landed which made me happy. This day was spent getting orientated, learning the expansive public transportation network, and finding where we were supposed to sleep. We met my friend’s girlfriend by where they were going to stay and find something to eat. It had been a couple of weeks since they last saw each other, so I left to go find my friend’s apartment, which was on the other side of town. This is when I really got to see the city.
Barcelona is a city they always use as an example of what should be done in Urban Planning. The transportation system works together seamlessly, with perfectly timed trains, metro and buses all that uses the same card. Coming from the Bay Area, this is a new concept to me. The architecture is an incredible mixture of old and new, blending different styles but somehow still all following the same unity. There would be a French colonial right next to a Neoclassical next to one of Gaudi's modern Catalonian apartments, but not one of them looked out of place. What causes Barcelona to stand out, however, is the way it is organized. It is a grid system on top of a grid system, superblocks composed of smaller blocks. Each block and superblock form distinct neighborhoods which makes it easy to get around and provides an even blend of both private and public space. I understood why it is an example to the rest of the world.
The person I stayed with I actually met during a summer program I took at UC Berkeley. We got to talking because she had grown up in Florence but now went to school in Barcelona for architecture. She was nice enough to offer up her apartment for me to stay at during my stay in her city, and my wallet and I were very grateful, even if I had to fight her cat for pillows the entire time. That first night she took me on a tour with her Vespa across the city, showing me the views in Parc Guell, all the main areas around where she lived, and finally to a hole in the wall tapas place for dinner where I got fried avocado and bravas, or fried potatoes with some spicy sauce thingy.
After this I met back up with my friends, now two more as two of the girlfriend’s friends had shown up and went to an ice bar down on the beach. We were mainly there for pictures, we lasted 20 minutes in the cold. After that, we went to a bar crawling a bit, but at that point keeping my eyes open became hard to do, so I started to head back to the apartment around 3 in the morning.
Saturday, I walked and saw the city. We met at Parc Guell and walked around until we decided we were hungry and went to find food. There is a small sandwich shop by the marina where the line is always long. I got two sandwiches, one for then and one for later, but I ate both then. We then walked around the marina for some time and then we walked along the beach where I got my shoes wet and became grumpy about it. We had some drinks after that and so I became less grumpy, but after that I went back to my friend’s apartment to change my shoes.
We ate dinner at a place called Surfsups, by the water. I got a burger with ketchup, but what they gave me was definitely not ketchup. The burger was still good, and that is all that can matter. Then we went out again. We got some drinks at one bar and were happy, and were planning on going to another bar, but we were all tired and went home and went to bed.
I locked the cat outside the room, so I slept peacefully for the first time that night. The cat knew what I did and gave me a look in the morning. I left early Sunday morning because I wanted to see the Gaudi Apartments and more of the city before meeting my friends at La Sagrada Famiglia. I saw the apartments and found some protests too. But then I got hungry, and I met my friends at a rooftop bar overlooking the basilica. I ate a prosciutto and tomato sandwich that was good and then had Sangria, which I had several glasses of, all while looking at La Sagrada Famiglia, one of the largest and prettiest churches in the world. Then we took a train to Camp Nou, where the soccer team FC Barcelona plays, and I got a jersey. We walked back into the city, saw some more protests, saw some more pretty buildings, got dinner near the water, and then I headed back to the apartment, as I had an early morning to catch my flight back to Florence for school
Riomaggiore and Como
Last weekend I visited Riomaggiore, one of the five cities in Cinque Terre, and also Como, by similarly named Lake Como. Riomaggiore is really pretty, but I think you knew that. Lake Como is also incredible. It currently sits at number 4 of my all-time favorite places.
We’ll talk about Riomaggiore first. The train there was interesting. A couple of friends who will remain nameless might have still been tipsy from the night before. It was his 21st birthday. We arrived around 10 in the morning. Riomaggiore is built right next to the sea, built or hewn into cliffs with alarmingly dangerous slopes. I guess that is part of its charm. It really is incredible to think about how this town developed. When you look at the terrain, it doesn't look like the ideal spot to create a town. We spent the first 20 minutes walking around and exploring the town. It's not a large town, with really only one major street. Some things to know; don’t pet the cats, they're all assholes, and don't expect sandy beaches. There is a beach, but extremely rocky. The day was spent climbing rocks, laying on the beach, exploring, and reading by the water. Climbing on the rocks was a lot of fun. For dinner, our friend cooked some amazing pasta and salad. Afterward, we all went down to the beach and had some wine. The stars were out, good music was playing, and we had the entire beach to ourselves.
I didn't really sleep that night. One reason could be that my bed was the floor and a rolled-up jacket. The other reason could be that we came back from the beach at 12:30, and I had a train ride to Como at 3:30. That train was an impulse buy the day before. While at the bar a few nights prior, I was talking to another group of friends who let it slip that they were going Como that same weekend, and somehow I managed to convince them to let me tag along. Super glad they let me come, as I don’t hang out with this group enough. Six hours and three missed trains later, I finally arrived. Como is the main city of several that live on the banks of Lake Como. Lake Como is one of the prettiest places I have ever visited. Think of Naboo from Star Wars, everything lush and green. (They actually filmed a few scenes for Star Wars there.) However, the best part about Como and the surrounding cities is the atmosphere. Everyone there is in a good mood, smiling, laughing, and are very friendly. It feels like you are best friends with the entire city. Since I arrived late, I only got to explore for a little, get dinner on a hill overlooking the lake, and get some gelato, but it was more than worth the delays and extra money I had to spend on tickets. A great weekend
The First Couple Weeks
Right now, I am two weeks into my study abroad program in Florence Italy. It simultaneously feels like I have been here for my entire life, as well as like I have only been here a couple of days. Here’s what I have been up to the last couple of weeks
I have classes Monday, Wednesday and Thursday with very little homework. Monday and Wednesday, I have a fair amount of class and don’t get out of class until 6:30. But Tuesday I have no classes, and Thursday only two. I have a lot of free time for activities.
A typical day for me finds my roommates and I wake up around 8:30 for our 9:25 class. I grab a croissant from Caffe Cavour downstairs from Francesca and walk the two blocks to campus with my roommates. The campus is only one building and one staircase, so you get to see all the homies on the way to class. I have Italian Civilization and Culture for an hour, and then Ethics for another hour before getting off at 11:30. After class, me and a couple of buddies will almost always walk down to our favorite panino place for a sandwich and then grab gelato just down the street for the walk back. I am now best buds with the owners Andrea and Antonio. Back to our pensione around 1 for lunch, a quick nap, and then back to campus for Italian 301.
I am an Italian minor, so I have been using this opportunity to finish up my remaining classes. However, this means half of my classes are taught solely in Italian, and while beneficial, I always leave with a headache. After an hour and a half of that class, I have an hour break where I usually go down to the library to read or catch up on some homework.
I end the day with Small Business in Europe, which I don’t need to take but I had to transfer into because of how interesting it is. The teacher is awesome, and every other class we take a trip into the city to visit one of her favorite small businesses and talk to the owners. Last week we visited a Vinaio, which is a place in which you’re able to get really good wine for cheap because it sells it on tap. Italian winemakers are only allowed to bottle a certain number of branded bottles, so it ends up selling its excess wine to small establishments that can sell it at it a cheaper price because it is not branded. Which is great for college students.
After Small Business it is pretty much dinner time, so back to the pensione around 7. After dinner, most of us will go upstairs and play some poker, everyone is addicted now, and if we are feeling up for it, wander down to a local pub that has become the meeting spot for Gonzaga students. Not a bad day.
One of the things I love so much about this experience is that they are trying to get the students out into the city. This happens in the classes, like mentioned above and also with my Italian civ class that shows us around the city every once in a while, but also with really cool opportunities that one can sign up with offered by the school. Last week, I was able to go see an Opera and a local soccer match for almost nothing. Next week I am starting a program called English for Pasta, where me and a friend eat dinner with a family every week. In exchange for spending half the meal talking in English, they teach us how to cook and also help us with our Italian skills. Tomorrow I start training for becoming a tour guide in the duomo, one of Florence’s most recognized landmarks. It is surreal to think that I live in this city.
It has taken some adjusting, but I am really enjoying my time here. Stay tuned for some upcoming posts, where I talk about my weekend trip to Riomaggiore and Lake Como, as well as some cool trips we have done here in Florence.
My morning walk to class.