{"id":12944,"date":"2025-07-08T13:23:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T13:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/?p=12944"},"modified":"2025-07-08T13:23:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T13:23:04","slug":"studying-away-in-northern-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/studying-away-in-northern-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Studying Away in Northern Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exploring Italy<\/h2>\n

Hi everyone! I engaged in a study away<\/a> experience last fall in northern Italy and this is one of my travel experiences during a break. In one week, I visited Venice, Siena, Florence, and Cinque Terre. I then went on a little solo adventure to Bologna! While I was in Venice, I saw Doge\u2019s Palace<\/a>, the Basilica, went on a gondola ride, and visited Murano and Burano. My favorites were my tour of Doge\u2019s Palace and the gelato I had while in Burano. This was my second time in Venice, and it continued to be my favorite destination in Italy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Following that adventure, we headed to Siena where we had car trouble in our Alfa Romeo that my mother rented. Despite that mess, Siena\u2014or Tuscany in general for that matter\u2014cemented a spot in my favorite places to visit. We also met with one of my new friends from the program and his family while we were there.<\/p>\n

Art and Hiking Abroad<\/h2>\n

Then we headed to Florence, which was not at all what I expected. Everything in Florence was just massive\u2014David, the Duomo, the sandwiches, and the city itself chief among the things.\"\"<\/p>\n

I discovered my interest in art history, with special thanks to Brunelleschi and Michelangelo. Also, I had never seen my mom as utterly obsessed with art as she was with David, seriously. I honestly had no idea how art could be made on as massive a scale as it was with David. We also visited unique restaurants while we were there, with one, in particular, standing out\u2014La Giostra\u2014where the owner had a sleeve of jewelry swirling around his arm and offered meats that were among the best in Italy.\"\"<\/p>\n

My time in Cinque Terre was short-lived, as I was only there for twenty-four hours. Cinque Terre was also a place, like Florence, that felt just massive. I regretted not making the time to go swimming as the weather was abnormally warm and there were so many people out on the beaches. Nevertheless, I went on a hike that took us from Monterosso to Vernazza\u2014by far the hardest hike I had ever partaken in.<\/p>\n

Solo Travels to Bologna<\/h2>\n

Finally, I traveled to Bologna on my own. I was hesitant about traveling solo, but I strongly recommended it. Even if you felt like you had only a little sense of individuality in yourself, I leaned into that and took the risk. I didn\u2019t have any concrete plans except how I was getting there and where I was staying. It turned out to be super fun just roaming around the city alone and seeing where my intuitions took me. I chose superb food places on a whim, even though the restaurant I was recommended didn\u2019t have any availability\u2014so I stumbled upon a different one off the beaten path, and it had amazing Bolognese.<\/p>\n

Overall, this travel break went very well, and it gave me more opportunities to learn about Italian culture than I had on campus. With nine days of built-in travel, it felt inevitable that that was going to happen, but it exceeded my expectations. My biggest lessons learned were to relax\u2014which is easier said than done\u2014because any issues will often find a way of getting resolved on their own. I also recommend taking risks by experiencing, eating, and drinking things that might seem scary at first. Those leaps in faith usually pay off in the end. Arrivederci!<\/p>\n

-Colin Alfaro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exploring Italy Hi everyone! I engaged in a study away experience last fall in northern Italy and this is one of my travel experiences during a break. In one week, I visited Venice, Siena, Florence, and Cinque Terre. I then went on a little solo adventure to Bologna! While I was in Venice, I saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-blogs","category-study-away"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12944"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12953,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12944\/revisions\/12953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/admissions-aid\/admission-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}