My first study abroad experience in Italia 2011
My journey to Italia 2011 begins before college. My family has Italian heritage stemming from Messina, Sicily. I’m very close with my family, and we are the typical Italian-American family. I have 5 uncles, we do Sunday dinner as often as we can with their families (antipasto and all). It’s more difficult now that I’m so far away and my grandparents aren’t with us anymore. We celebrate family Christmas on Christmas Eve together. I’d always wanted to learn to speak Italian growing up but it wasn’t available in school. At least until Senior year.
They started to teach Italian in my high school, but I couldn’t fit it into my schedule. I wasn’t able to learn Italian until I started college at University of Delaware. Unfortunately, I was the usual indecisive college student who can’t pick a major. I waffled between French, which I studied for 8 years, Italian, some Japanese and Political Science. I loved everything I learned, but Italian is what came easiest to me. Italian is what connected me to my heritage. Once I started classes in Italian, it just fit. After struggling with keeping up with all my classes, I learned that unless I did some study abroad and/or extra sessions, I wasn’t going to graduate on time…
The first few days
I spent winter session in Italia 2011! Almost 5 weeks in another country, learning the language of my heritage. It was so exciting and growth inspiring. The first week we spent traveling which was so lucky, because the other study abroad groups had classes starting that first day. We spent the first 2 days in Rome. Our first excursion was to see the Colosseum. It was only a few blocks from our hotel, HOWEVER my roommates and I had laid down for a nap after our flight and we missed the Colosseum tour. Major fail. We saw so much more though it almost didn’t matter…well almost. We walked around for the day waiting on everyone to finish and that night we went to the local ice bar. Gotta try it once right? After that we had a quick stop in Sorrento, Pompeii and Napoli. On our way back up north to Siena we also stopped for a beautiful afternoon in Assisi.
We Went South
Sorrento is a beautiful beach town on the mountain side. The road was so narrow on our bus ride up there! Kinda scary but it was beautiful seeing the homes on the mountain side. There are lemon trees lining the streets, and limoncello in every little shop. Pompeii was one of the most wonderful and simultaneously sad things I’ve ever seen. We took a tour through a museum, and we saw so many artifacts, mosaics, and even recovered frescos from the ruins of the city. We also took a tour of the ruins to see some of what used to be the market that still stands today.
Finding our way to Siena
After Pompeii we spent two days in Napoli. There we found some of the best pizza I’ve ever had, beautiful buildings, and a pretty awesome night out in the club. I was in college ok? From there we stopped for an afternoon in lovely and quaint Assisi. We got a tour of the small town, which was quiet in the middle of January. Our lunch was amazing, the first time I ate risotto in Italy! So creamy and delicious. We learned more about San Francesco d’Assisi and Santa Chiara. Even for those non religious types, it’s still interesting and educational. Then, we arrived in Siena and were placed with our host families. This was just the first week of my Italian study abroad adventure. Tune in to hear about the rest of my traipsing around Italy for the first time!
If you are liking my travel stories check out my first experience in Haiti!
