Ah, Firenze. I don’t even know where to begin. I fear that I won’t be meticulous enough in my choice of words, that I won’t be able to convey how absolutely stunning this city is. We’ve all seen the motion pictures—"Under the Tuscan Sun," "Eat, Pray, Love," "Letters to Juliet," even "The Lizzie McGuire Movie." We watch and we dream of one day visiting this Italian paradise, and let me tell you, it’s even better than you think it is. I set foot in Florence for the first time a year ago. I had just finished studying in (chilly) London and was as excited as ever to finally be “under the Tuscan sun.”
Why Florence?
The first thing we are told as freshmen is to head into the Office of Global Programs and do a little research—where, when, and for how long would we want to go study abroad? My university has a massive global presence (across six continents) and one of its locations is in fact in Florence. Yes, I flew there to take classes, but I have to say that it was perhaps the most beautiful Italian learning experience I could have ever hoped for, and here’s why:
So paradise actually exists.
NYU Florence is quite literally a paradise. In 1994, the university inherited Villa La Pietra from the Acton family, the largest gift any U.S. university had ever received from another country. The campus consists of five villas, sits on almost 60 acres of land, and boasts gardens and landscapes that people from all over the world paint, write about, and hope to visit. This was my home. The pictures below are just a modicum of what was my backyard.
Learning a foreign language in a foreign country makes sense.
While there were a handful of levels to choose from, I enrolled in an intensive elementary Italian course. It was rough—four hours a day, four days a week. But I was living in Italy amongst people who primarily spoke their native language on the daily. It was incredible just how quickly my friends and I were able to conversationally speak and understand Italian. We were able to walk into restaurants and read and order in this new language; when navigating across the country, we were able to ask for directions, understand signs, and not actually miss the train (well, maybe that happened once). Learning a new language is most effective when you are surrounded by it. It also makes your travels that much easier.
Classes that aren't in the classroom are kind of amazing.
I only entered the school building twice for one of my classes in order to take exams. Every other day, we met outside our villa in the morning, piled into a bus, and headed off to explore all the great gardens of Tuscany. During our trip to Villa di Castello, we were let into the Grotto of the Animals and were soaked by hidden water jets. Definitely beats sitting at a desk, if you ask me.
Italy isn't a one-city country...
There was much to explore in Florence, but all of Italy also awaited. Some of the cities my friends and/or I visited included: Rome (twice), Parma, Verona, Milan, Venice, Bologna, Cinque Terre, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast. Because I never had to leave the country, travel via train was easy and oftentimes so cheap (I've purchased first class tickets for less than $50 round trip). Some sites I've used to purchase train tickets are Trenitalia and Rail Europe.
...But staying in one city isn't bad either.
Classes typically ended around 6:30 p.m. (18:30) for me. While there was always food provided at the villa, many of us often got dressed and went into town for a night out. With authentic food, hotel rooftops, Taco Tuesdays, American bars, outdoor clubs, and most importantly a crowd of both friendly locals and tourists, there was never a shortage of fun. Keep an eye out for my next project "Where To Party In Florence" coming soon.
* * * * *
If you haven't already, be sure to navigate through the links within this blog post to learn more about how you can travel to Italy like I did. Oh, and enjoy my pictures below.
