Florence Study Abroad: a Life Changing Experience Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The classes that I took were classes I needed to fill my core requirements and had nothing to do with my major. I felt sometimes the assignments were nothing but busy work. At times the language barrier affected the professor's abilities to communicate assignments to the students and would result in confusion among the class. However, the classes I took were not classes I would ever have the opportunity to take at my home university and most of the time were extremely interesting!

On-site administration of your program

Our advisers were in constant contact with us throughout the semester. They were always sending us emails updating us on news and events happening around us. They made it well known that we could come to them for anything and encouraged all students to do so! The program did such a good job at making sure all students were settled in properly and did whatever they could to make us feel comfortable with all of the changes we were going through. I would recommend them to any student who was going abroad, they were awesome in every aspect!

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Our apartment was located right in the central market (Piazza del Mercato Centrale). I think we lucked out on our location. The apartment itself was extremely nice, and consisted of 4 bedrooms for 7 students, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. Our apartment was at the very top of the building, about 100 steps up, however there is an elevator that isn't too sketchy. Our apartment came with mostly everything we needed, including wireless internet that we each had to pay for separately. I was expecting to have to buy a lot of things for the apartment when we got there, however we all found collections of things past students had left over the years and it was soo helpful. Our land lady was a cute old woman named Ann who would stop by whenever we needed something fixed. Our apartment was in walking distance to mostly anything we needed in Florence, I never once took a bus and took a taxi one time only because it was late at night.

The food in Italy is AMAZING, which I'm sure no one would doubt. I particularly liked ZaZa the best, which was conveniently located right below our apartment. Also, for lunch I would highly suggest Mario's, which was ALSO conveniently located in Mercato Centrale, and is delicious! Restaurants are very easy to come by all around Florence, but I would suggest to avoid the ones that are located right on the main streets/piazzas, they are often overpriced and don't always have good food. As for gelato, avoid places that have huge piles, and don't be afraid to ask around!

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Our program took us on 4 excursions through the semester: Rome, Venice, Sienna, and Lucca. I highly suggest to go on all of these excursions, everything is already paid for except a meal or two. There are also many cultural events that will be offered throughout the semester that you can sign up for ranging from craft shows to soccer games.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Florence is an extremely safe city, but obviously there are precautions that every student should take no matter where they are. I never ran into any problems, but I do know people who had things stolen from them at clubs or while they were out late at night not paying attention to their things. There was only one time where I needed to seek medical attention, and the doctor I saw was very prompt and helpful.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

In Florence, a very touristy city in Italy, most people speak English. Eeven when I would attempt to speak Italian to the locals, they would usually answer me in English anyways. When traveling outside of the city to less well-known towns, knowing Italian becomes more useful. In my Italian language class, we mostly spoke Italian. Although we learned a lot of grammar, verbs, and vocab, I wish we had spent more time on conversational Italian - however they do have seminars you can attend on the side to practice conversations (wish I had participated in more of these!)

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• Americans