Author: Isabella Sotlar | Major: English | Semester: Summer 2024
Leaning Tower of Pisa
La Dolce Vita, The sweet life, is a practice that is always put in place in Italy. Even in a large, bustling city such as Milan; Italians live for the simple, sweet moments of everyday life. This past semester I lived in Milan, Italy. Although Milan is not the capital city, it is the second largest city in Italy, and could be compared to New York, as far as size and the general aesthetic of the city. I chose to do an entire semester of study, so it was important to me that I was at a university that had classes I could take that applied towards my degree program. Luckily, La Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, was a great fit. I was enrolled in: Italian Creative Writing and Storytelling, A Mafia Story: Media and Culture, Federico Fellini & Film, and Italian Language. These classes were all part of my major and minor, but they were also very fun and taught me more about Italy as a whole.
I have always been interested in studying abroad because my mom studied in Spain during her collegiate years. I knew the best way to really learn and build upon my Italian minor and the language would be to go abroad. My first day in Italy, no one was speaking English, except for our program leaders who met us to show us our housing. With two years of Italian classroom experience I had to immediately employ “ciao”, “posso avere”, “Io vorrei”, “per favore” and more to simply order food and water. There was a moment of shock when I realized I could no longer use English as my primary form of communication, but soon after, I started spouting all the Italian words I knew and telling everyone in Milan, “Solo Italiano, per favore. Voglio praticare il mio Italiano.”
Beyond furthering my degree and language learning experience, I also took the time abroad to work on my Honors thesis research. As an English major, I decided to focus on a piece comparing Italian and American culture in a fictional structure. My research mainly included speaking to people native to Italy, as well as digging into the history of Italian culture. Throughout the entire semester, I was able to gain a solid understanding on what I was going to write about and how to best display the complex history of Italy and America.
Beyond the beauty of Italy, myself and many of the other people within my program (SAI Milan) decided to travel within Italy and out of the country. Every place I traveled I learned something new, and gained an integral experience that has shaped me. I traveled to England, Switzerland, France, Spain, Croatia, Malta, Greece, and Morocco. Within Italy, I traveled to Venice, Verona, Stradella, Valmalenco, Camogli, Recco, Genova, Lake Como, Pisa, Florence, Portofino, Rome, Cinque Terre, Positano, Sorrento, and Capri. The opportunity for this travel was afforded to me by the honors college, and my program, SAI International.
One valuable lesson I learned while abroad was the distinct respect for different cultures. When traveling through Italy and many other countries, It is always important to learn about the culture even briefly before going, so that you maintain respect for the culture. For example, do you tip? What clothing is appropriate or inappropriate? What times of day do businesses close down? What is an appropriate mealtime? One of the trips when this was most important was Morocco, in Morocco it is respectful of the culture to cover up more and wear different clothing. My group made sure we knew this so we could have the best experience in Morocco. If I were to make the choice and go abroad all over again, I would tell other students this: appreciate the country you are in and soak up every minute of culture and language. Taking time to learn the language is important because it allows you to communicate with your local cafe baristas and shop owners. One of my favorite experiences from being abroad in Italy was just going to my local bar cafe and speaking to the barista’s in Italian. For traveling, I think it is important to go to many places within the country you are living in. Traveling throughout Italy was such a joy and it afforded me more time to learn about the vast culture in the different regions of Italy.
My favorite trip had to be traveling to Malta with all of my friends in my program. We were able to go cliff jumping, snorkeling, and explore the grottos and caves of the country. My semester abroad was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life and a fantastic experience to learn from new professors and encounter different countries’ learning experiences. Milan is a fantastic place to live and experience Italian culture. I learned so much while I was there and got to explore a beautiful city and aspect of Italian culture. I am so thankful for the University of Arkansas and the Honors college, without them, I would not have been able to come abroad in the first place. Ciao!