Me with a seafood risotto and roasted sea bass in Rome

Author: Max Crofton | Major: Biology | Semester: Summer 2023

My name is Maximus Crofton and I am a biology major in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. This past summer I studied abroad in Florence, Italy for three weeks. I participated in this program through the SAI Study Abroad Programs. I took two classes for a total of six credit hours. These classes were Biomedical Ethics and History of the Mafia. Both classes had their respective benefits for my academic and professional careers. My current professional career plan is to go to medical school after my undergraduate degree. Biomedical ethics laid a foundation of the morality of certain medical practices and their modern applications. This is a great preparatory class for students considering med school as it will give you real life examples of immoral and unethical practices and their implications on international medical applications.

The second class gave me a cultural immersion of Italy. My professor for this class had personal anecdotes of how the mafia is a real problem in Italy and has affected his day to day life growing up there. This class taught me the basic workings of the Italian government and legal system as well as how the population deals with this major problem faced by the country. Both professors I had were extremely friendly and had a very personable relationship with every student in their classes. Some cultural differences were apparent with these professors. One is how Italians generally drink wine when they eat food, and this was even shown on our last day of class when my Biomedical ethics professor brought prosecco with his homemade pastries.

However, my favorite part of the experience was the food. In general, I would describe myself as quite a picky eater, but on this trip I decided to expand my palate. I was not disappointed. When people say Italy has some of the best food in the world, believe them because they are not lying. The dishes I tried were nothing short of incredible. I even went as far as to rank every meal I ate and list all of the new foods I tried. These included anything from different types of seafood, mushrooms, cheeses, and even food that was scary looking like squid ink pasta that was pitch black.

If I were to give any advice to prospective study abroad students it would be to have a completely open mind when traveling. Additionally, bring good walking shoes if you are going anywhere in Europe because it is extremely walkable. I wish I would have known this more because I showed up in crocs and my luggage got lost for four days which led to having blisters on my feet on day one. I walked more on this trip than I ever have in my entire life. On the weekend when I visited Rome I walked over 30 miles in three days. This experience was the best experience of my life. I would strongly recommend studying abroad even if you were not thinking of it previously. The only thing I could complain about is that it was hot so I would recommend to avoid going in the late summer if you cannot handle the heat well