Excursion to Cinque Terre

Author: Rachel Wilbourne | Major: Psychology | Semester: Summer 2023

I spent the last month studying abroad in my new favorite place on Earth: Florence, Italy. While abroad, I encountered new people, new places, and new cultures and I can honestly say this experience certainly advanced not only my academic and professional goals, but my person as a whole.

I chose CIS Abroad: Summer in Florence because I thought 3 weeks was the perfect amount of time for me to go abroad and Florence looked beautiful. Turns out, a lifetime wouldn’t be long enough, and Florence was even more amazing than I could have imagined. While abroad, I studied Beginner Italian at Florence University of the Arts. I really enjoyed my teacher, Claudio, at the school as well as the campus itself. My teacher was young, funny, and sarcastic and frequently took the class on field trips around the city to really get a feel for the culture and to practice our speaking skills. We visited the Central Market as well as three of the city’s most historic caffes. One way which my course at Florence University of the Arts was very different from the University of Arkansas is that my class was three hours every day and there were absolutely no absences allowed. This strict schedule was hard to wrap my mind around when I first arrived, but I ended up truly enjoying each day in class. The Florence University of the Arts Campus was very different from that of the University of Arkansas campus in that its buildings were scattered all across the city. These buildings had beautiful architecture, and the building that I had class in even had a courtyard within the building where we would regularly gathered to study and take breaks. I picked up a decent amount of Italian from the course, which allowed me to be able to speak to locals with basics such as my name, my age, where I am from, ordering at restaurants, and asking for directions. Learning in an environment that is extremely different than I am used to taught me to adapt to my surroundings and always try to learn from everything I see and experience. I believe that this experience really helped to advance my academic and professional goals because it gave me the opportunity to meet new contacts and gain a global perspective by learning about a different country’s history, customs, social norms, and educational system and comparing it to the States.

The culture I experienced during my travels was extraordinary and I will always cherish that opportunity to make new friends. With these new friends, I traveled to several other cities on weekend excursions, navigating Italian planes, trains, and automobiles. We traveled to Rome, Cinque Terre, Venice, Piombino, Elba Island, and Barcelona. In Florence, I also spent my days visiting many museums and other monuments such as the Galleria Accademia where I saw the statue of David, and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore where I climbed the Piazza del Duomo. The food in and around Florence was exquisite and I would have to say my favorite was the pesto pasta I devoured after a long hike in Cinque Terre (pesto is a Cinque Terre specialty).

Lastly, I would have to say that studying abroad was the most unique experience I have ever had the pleasure of participating in and I would recommend studying abroad in general, but especially my program, CIS Abroad: Summer in Florence, to anyone even remotely considering it. It drastically improved my overall confidence as a student and person and taught me so much about myself as well as Italian culture. My only regret is that my program wasn’t longer. I wish I would have known beforehand how much I would enjoy studying abroad, so that I could have picked a program that would last all summer or even a whole semester. One piece of advice I would share, though, would be to buy an Apple Airtag (or other tracking device) to put in luggage if you are planning to check a bag on an international flight. My luggage was lost on my flight from Florence to Barcelona, and without the Airtag that I was able to track from my phone, I would have had no way of knowing where my luggage was. The first thing I did when I got back to the United States was eat a burger because believe it or not, you do eventually get tired of pizza and pasta!