It wasn’t until a couple of months into my study abroad journey that I went somewhere else than my host country. It was a long wait, but spring break had finally come upon us, and it was time to finally explore some other country in Europe. Every little thing was giving me a new experience. I had never really had to plan a trip before or buy plane tickets and hotels, so this trip was giving me a whole new feeling of independence. It was thrilling being given the opportunity to travel to somewhere different and absorb every single part of it.
Once we landed in Italy it was a strange feeling. It was weird being in a country where I actively wasn’t trying to learn the language. Although almost everyone where I went spoke English it was odd having the English language be my only source of communication. When traveling in France I almost always expect French people to not know English and try to conduct all my interactions in French. Now traveling in Italy my entire way of communication that I had gotten used to was changed. While traveling through Italy when saying Thank you I would have to correct myself and say “Grazzi” instead of “Merci” like what had become ingrained in me.
The first Italian city I went to was Venice. When choosing this city, I didn’t look up anything about it and was pleasantly surprised to discover what Venice had to offer. Venice is mainly known for its glass. I had always heard that Venice was a water city, but I had never internalized that thought. I had never seen a city that only had boat-based travel and it was interesting to see how the citizens had adapted. You could tell that all the streets in Venice were filled with history. I loved walking through each nook and cranny looking for new souvenirs to buy. Although Venice was a very nice city, all the streets were very narrow and tiny. Sometimes you felt like if maps did not exist you could keep walking and never find your way out. One of the things I felt I had to accomplish while being in Venice was going on a Gondola. While in Venice it was easy to find someone who was available to take me and my friends for a ride. While going on the ride it was so hard to even talk because it felt that if you talked you would break the magic that had been placed there. My friends and I just sat in silence appreciating all the scenery we saw.
The next city we went to was Florence and it was such a different experience than Venice. Venice felt like a city based on tourism while Florence felt like it was a city meant to be toured. In Florence my friends and I decided to go on a vespa tour. This tour was going to take us to the French countryside where we would tour a town called San Gimignano and taste the world’s best gelato. The tour was about 45 minutes of being taken through the beautiful sights of Italy like vineyards and Italian homes. In the end my time in Italy was one of the best times I had ever had. While I was there it felt like I had stepped over a huge independence milestone that I needed to fully become myself.
