Lindsay C. - Italy - Spring 2010

It’s been about a month since I arrived in Florence and it took about 2 and half weeks until I actually felt like I was living here. First impressions…I do not know where to begin. I’m going to an art, design and fashion school which even in America would have been a new experience for me. Let’s just say Italians are quite fashionable and are in love with being quite fashionable. Dogs are everywhere, usually bundled up with some cute sweater following their owners around. I recently learned that the Italian view of dogs is much different from the States or UK. Where we consider the dog a part of the family and show much affection to it, Italians (though they dress their dog) do not show compassion. My teacher was telling us how if a family bought a puppy but then decided to go out of town, instead of paying someone to take care of the dog, they usually just release it to the streets.

Food. I have not stopped eating since I arrived. It is true, Italians are brilliant with their food and they spend hours in restaurants eating. I’m slowly trying to eat like and Italian. Very slow, and finishing everything put in front of me because most places do not let you take your food home for leftovers. Another thing I’ve needed to get used to, the amount of money I spend. Everything costs a lot here, and when I think about it in euros and then think about it in dollars it blows my mind. I’ve finally grown to think in euros and only euros so it does not seem as troublesome.

Italian cafes are so different from cafes at home. Italians receive their drink at the bar and continue to drink it at the bar. Once they finish it they pay and leave. No one sits, relaxes and sips their café latte or what have you. It took some getting used to it but I’m good following the flow now.


My favorite part about this experience so far is my art history class. Florence is filled with history, old buildings and old artwork. Learning art history at home is nothing compared to learning it here, the place where art history was basically born. Last week I had class in Florence’s famous Duomo (Cathedral) and learned about the history of it from the inside. A few weeks ago I had class in the Santa Croce, surrounded by the dead celebrities of Florence, with names like Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and Galileo. I could have class like that the rest of my life!


The most difficult part for me, apart from being away from everyone I know, is two of my classes that are taught strictly in Italian. I am slowly learning the language but this does not help me when I am sitting in a Marketing and Trends class listening to the teacher speak for 2 hours in only Italian. She does look my direction and throw out a sentence or two in English to get me up to speed, but I can’t help but think I’m missing a lot. I will come away with great experience and new skills from this class but it does stress me out quite a bit to feel so lost. Oddly enough I do love it because I feel I am truly learning the way an Italian would instead of taking classes in only English. In our class we work on a group project for the entire semester and I am working with Italians, a girl from Malaysia and a girl from Holland. It’s very interesting to see the views of other people from around the world and try to work together to produce an end project. I love it!

Ciao!