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My Italy Recommendations

Here’s a long post on all of my recommendations for Italy, including things to see (or don’t see) and places to eat (or don’t eat). Read more if you’re planning on going to Italy soon and want some tips!

General Italy tips:

Always ask if there is a student discount and show your student ID, especially at museums and tourist attractions.

Make sure to check for online tickets for popular attractions. Worth the booking fee to skip the incredibly long line.

If the gelato is piled high and/or brightly colored, it’s not good!!!

Don’t pay over €1.50 for a cappuccino, €2 for a small gelato (never get a large, you won’t finish it), €10 for a whole pizza

Basically all restaurants in piazzas where there are tourist attractions are tourist traps. Especially if the menus are translated into many languages, include chicken parmesan, and/or they ask for a tip/service charge.

Italians don’t order a cappuccino after noon, at least never when it’s right before or after a meal. Black coffee doesn’t exist but if you really need it, order an americano.

The cobblestone and tiny sidewalks makes streets, sidewalks and sidewalks, streets. Be cautious and alert, especially for vespas!

Helpful phrases:

Sì/no- yes/no

Grazie- thank you

Per favore- please

Quanto costa? - how much is it?

Poso?- may I?

Uno, due (do-eh), tre, quatro, cinque (chink-weh), sei (say), sette, otto, nove (Noh-veh), dieci(dee-eh-chee)- 1-10

Caffe- coffee

Vorrei (vorr-ay) un…- I would like a…

Florence

If you have just one day, try to do what I starred

Coffee:

**Ditta Artigianale- wonderful staff, great coffee, often dogs inside their shops. Two locations, one across the river and one near Santa Croce. Get the coffee french toast its the best french toast I have ever had. Their pancakes are very good too.

Go into a coffee bar for the traditional, Italian coffee experience. Order a caffe macchiatto (espresso shot topped off with milk) or a cappuccino!

Santa Croce area: Caffe Michelangolo was my regular spot, next to my apartment. Can get a cappuccino for 1.30

La Menagerie- very cute and large. Floral shop, cafe, bar, and restaurant and occasional jazz club all in one. Great seating outside for people watching. Near San Lorenzo church

Brunch at Le Vespe Cafe

News Cafe- Cappuccino art like a Duomo or Ponte Vecchio

Sights:

**Ponte Vecchio- Next bridge over, there are landings that jut out from the sides and you’re ‘allowed’ to go on them. Great for photos or even a nice spot to eat your gelato

**Piazza Michelangelo- Long and steep walk up but well worth the view. Have a picnic in the rose garden or go all the way up to the top and drink with David (the 3rd in the city)

**Santa Croce Church- best church in the city!!!!! Gorgeous architecture, galileo and michelangelo are buried in there, and I love it. I gave tours there. The best way to see it is by taking a free tour (just go up to the desk after buying a ticket that says free guided tours). No need to tip, they aren’t accepted.

**Duomo & bell tower (outside)- I don’t think it’s worth going to the top. Just seeing the outside is fine!

Piazza Della Repubblica

**Uffizi Gallery- buy tickets ahead of time so its a shorter line. Botticelli’s Venus and Primavera, as well as many other famous Renaissance paintings are here. Can’t go to Florence and not go here!

Boboli Gardens at Pitti Palace

Dante’s face in the cobblestone by his ‘house’ (its a fake historical place) Can only be found if there’s water on it

Accademia for the original David & lots of other Michelangelo sculptures. Buy tickets online to skip the line

**Santa Maria Novella church- gorgeous, underrated, and has some wonderful art inside!

Food:

**Gelato: Gelateria dei Neri (Ricotta & fig, nonna cake, and nutella are the best flavors in my opinion),

Any open air market, cheap food especially fruits and vegetables and overall just really colorful. Don’t grab for food, the vendor will pick the best for you just point and show them a number for quantity. My usual was Sant Ambrogio

**Pizza:Caffe Italiano by Vivoli, another great gelato spot (it’s the door to the right, not the main restaurant). Order your own cause you’ll eat the whole thing!

Best Meal- Acqua al 2. Make a reservation online earlier in the day or the day before. Pasta sampler is the way to go!

Pasta- Osteria Santo Spirito- best pasta in Italy. Order the “half” portions because they’re still big and you get to try more. My favorites were the white truffle gnocchi and tomato pici.

**Best Panino- La Prosciutteria or Pino’s

Drinks:

The Box- great local bar that I went to all the time. Cheap cocktails, wine, etc and mostly locals there. I had some great conversations and met some wonderful people there.

Enotecas- buy vino sfuso which is ‘loose wine’ straight from the vineyard. Bring your own bottle to fill or buy one there. Its typically only 3 euros for a bottle and its way better than grocery store wine. No open container laws so feel free to drink it in the street.

Rome

Pantheon (its free!)

Roman forum & the colosseum- go to the colosseum first because that ticket you buy will pay for forum as well

Pifebo vintage shop

Trevi fountain

Vatican & sistine chapel & st. paul’s- buy your ticket online! Way shorter wait

Venice

You don’t need more than a day or two, honestly.

Best thing to do is just drop your stuff off and wander. Its a small island so just walk endlessly. Its all alleyways since its a pedestrian (and bike) only town.

Doge Palace

Murano- Glass blowing island, take a water taxi

Burano- super colorful buildings, gorgeous for photos (I didn’t make it there but I should’ve). Take a water taxi.

89 cent giant juice boxes of wine in the grocery stores. There isn’t much night life here besides drinking in a piazza.

Guggenheim museum- lots of great artwork like Picassos and Calders

Piazza San Marco- I regret not going into the Basilica

Tuscany

Seriously go into the wine country if you can! It’s amazing. Now I get way snobby old people talk about Napa Valley so much (but Tuscany is still probably better).

Montepulciano:

Best vineyards in Tuscany! Try to find a half-day trip that will take you to a vineyard or two for wine tasting.

Try. the. Cheese. Pecorino is the BEST! Go into a shop in the town and ask to try different ages. The truffle one is a must too.

Maremma:

Coast of tuscany has beautiful beaches, especially the islands, and they’re much less crowded and touristy than places like Positano. I went to Isola de Giglio & castaglione della pescaia

Pisa:

You only need a few hours here (sorry to anyone from Pisa or enjoys it…). You can take a train from Florence and still be back in time to have aperitivo and dinner

Go to the leaning tower and take cheesy photos, everyone does (even I did)

Go to the Keith Haring mural!

If you take the train from Pisa, check your platform because there are two platform #2s...

That’s about it…Sorry Pisa

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Living in Florence for a semester felt like a wonderfully long vacation. Living in Edinburgh feels like a new home

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If anyone was wondering what my list of visited cities was, I finally have an updated version. I haven't yet left Edinburgh since I arrived (being sick put a wrench in that). But I'll be traveling once again starting this Friday...to Glasgow!

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The shocking thing I learned about myself

I did not expect this, but after traveling to now 20 towns and cities across 6 countries the past few months, I am getting tired of traveling. First, I would like to acknowledge how incredibly privileged I am to be doing this in the first place. Study abroad and travel are luxuries. I have worked hard to make it happen but it's still very much a luxury compared to most people my age. Secondly, I am not complaining about my travels or saying I'm bored. Rather, the splendor of going to a new city, to a new country, has started to fade because I have been doing it with little to no break in between new places. I still enjoy them, but that feeling you get when your on vacation somewhere new after not having left your familiar city in months, it starts to dwindle when it becomes your routine. I'm still planning on traveling around Europe while I'm living in Scotland, but I've noticed that I have to force myself a bit to plan weekend and day trips around the U.K. This leads to my big discovery: I'm more of a homebody than I thought! I've always itched to travel and thought that I would like to travel as often as possible. I still love travel and exploring new places and meeting new people, but I also love nesting, having my own home, having family and friends to come back to after my travels. If you asked me in August if I would take a job with constant travel, I wouldn't hesitate to say yes. Now I am realizing that the nomadic lifestyle isn't for me. I like my adventures intermittent...I'm okay with having some predictability in my life! I'm still incredibly excited for my upcoming European adventures. I'm still grateful for this opportunity that most people don't get. Most importantly, I will always cherish my memories from this experience. But I also learned that travel is more rewarding to me when I have spent time returning to my daily life, to my people (and my dogs), before going on yet another trip. Well, this was something I have been trying to put into words for a while now, and here it is.

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The streets of Edinburgh

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Arthur's Seat

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St. Giles Cathedral // I have traded renaissance for gothic and medieval history surrounding me

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Greyfriar’s Kirkyard // I met a very nice elderly Scotsman here while I was taking photos. He seemed lonely so I happily chatted with him on a bench for almost an hour. As I said, scots are very friendly and neighborly. And if you are in Scotland, you’re everyone’s neighbor now.

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I love a city that immortalizes a dog!

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It's time to get back to work!

I finally have a phone and a functioning computer again, so it's time to keep the internet updated on my travels! I've been in Scotland for exactly two weeks today and I'm in love. Everyone is so friendly, the weather is gloomy (how I like it), and there's history all around me. I've traded palazzi for castles, espresso for tea, biscotti for crumpets 😜The Scottish are also much more international in their interests. I loved Italy, but their only passions were Italian, and telling the world about Italians. Here you can find any cuisine, anything you're craving. It's wonderful!

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Traveling solo actually makes it easier to make quick friends! I have made some great friends by simply bonding over the fact that you are both traveling alone and don’t know anyone else. It’s also comforting as a female to find another female traveling alone. Hostels are also really great for meeting people when you’re traveling solo. For me, the party atmosphere hostels aren’t really for me, but I had a great time befriending people (the staff of the hostel actually) when I stayed at a small place in Venice. I now have contacts for future possible travels in Queens, San Francisco, Mexico City, and South Africa! Fingers crossed for even more global friendships while I travel during winter break and during my time studying abroad in Scotland!

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Feature Expanded: Museum and Artist’s Feature Film Distribution and Exhibition

Tobias Pausing, Leonardo Bigazzi, Jaap Guldenmond, and Joana Hadjithomas

This was a panel discussion about visual artists in film. Jaap is the curator in Amsterdam at Eye Filmmuseum. Joana is an artist who also creates films. They discussed the intersection of visual arts and cinema; it is not just aesthetics. For clarification, a theatrical release is in cinema and non-theatrical release is in museums, exhibits, etc. This concept of art films are mostly non-theatrically released. The artist loses control of the work once it has been sold as a feature film, and at some point they recognize they need to let go. But first, the artist must decide whether they are willing to lose this control. Joana said that although it may be a bit upsetting as an artist, who is used to having a say in everything, the work involved in controlling how your film is presented is extremely time consuming so it is usually worth it to relinquish some of the control. The panel also discussed the pros and cons of presenting a long film in an exhibition space. The positives include selling it as an art piece, the technical equipment may be better than what would be available for cinematic presentation, and it would reach multiple types of audiences. However, the negatives include that you never know when someone will walk into the exhibit, they won’t stay for the whole piece and thus experience an odd portion of the film, and the rights become more complicated. As Tobias explained, who is in both the artistic and cinematic film industries, the rights become more complicated because non-commercial does not necessarily mean non-theatrical. Ultimately, deciding how a film is shown comes down to the filmmaker; do you want visibility? Earn your money back? Make a profit? Name recognition?

“I am an artist making a film…No, I am making a film. Films are inherently artistic. If you want to play in the realm of feature films, you to let go of that.” - Joana Hadjithomas

After the film, I would say that I agree most with Joana’s statement that films are inherently artistic. I think that any film could be presented in a cinematic setting, and any film could be presented in an exhibition space. The difference comes down to what the filmmaker wants to achieve and how much they want to control the audience’s perceptions. I think the exhibition space controls that more, but it has less control over how long someone views the film. It also naturally defines the film as more of an art piece when it is in an exhibition space.

A question I am still curious about is whether art films are considered 4D art, or if that is another category of art.

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Packing Tips For People About To Study Abroad

Another thing I found in my little notebook

1. Pack a little notebook. Jot down anything, thoughts, observations, what you did that day. Its nice to look back on.

2. Lighter and smaller the better! And as for short trips while you’re abroad, bring a backpack or small duffel and force yourself to limit your space to just that bag. It’s possible, I promise.

3. Pack an extra bag/packing cube for dirty clothes while you’re traveling

4. Packing cubes are wonderful! They save space and help you organize. Rolling up your clothes (and then putting them in the cubes) saves even more space and helps with wrinkles

5. Throw a dryer sheet or two in each suitcase. It keeps your clothes smelling nice

6. Bring reusable bags for groceries! Most grocery stores in Europe will charge you for each plastic bag that you use, plus they are sturdied than the plastic bags. Remember, you’ll be walking, not driving, back to your apartment with all those groceries!

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Looking back on old notes from the start of my time in Florence

I only have 10 full days left in Florence! How did time fly so quickly? Here’s an entry I found in my little notebook from my first week in Florence. Shockingly (not) its about coffee and dogs.

First place I  found/got to on my own: Ditta Artigianale (a coffeeshop in my neighborhood)

I knew it was a close walk and admittedly, I looked up the walking directions before I left. Baby steps! It has only been four days. One of my favorite things is how causally dog-friendly most places in Italy are. No one asks or refers to a sign, dogs are just welcome. They’re much better trained here too. No barking and they follow their owners WITHOUT a leash. Looking around, this coffeeshop looks a lot more like the hipster American ones than any Italian cafe. I have yet to figure out the socially accepted amount of time to take up space in a cafe. I finished my drink so I’ll probably leave in a minute. I definitely want to have my regular places, As Regan said, it’s nice to be recognized. Like I exist in Florence. I don’t exist yet. 

As my stream of consciousness writing may suggest, I often partake in mindless writing or writing exactly what I’m thinking when I’m alone in public spaces. It is a social anxiety coping mechanism, to make myself look busy but more interesting than if I were just on my phone.

Its a bit surreal looking back at one of my first days in Florence when I am about to leave. I did indeed make this coffeeshop one of my regular places. I also have multiple spots where they will recognize me. So I guess I exist in Florence now. Re-reading this makes me even sadder to leave this place.

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One more thing...

I have also come to the acceptance that I have unrealistic expectations. I knew this, but I never fully accepted it and embraced it until now. So, I came to Europe with expectations in my head of what it would be like, what I would see, how much/how little I would spend, how many friends I'd make, etc etc. I came with expectations that I never even knew I had and ones I can't even put into words! THROW ALL EXPECTATIONS OUT THE MOMENT YOU STEP INTO A NEW PLACE! The expectations prepared you, but once you get there you need to just experience it as it is, not how you wanted it to be. The experience of study abroad becomes much more satisfying and rewarding when you stop comparing yourself to other people studying abroad with you, when you stop comparing a city to what you expected it to be like, and when you stop worrying about how you'll post about the experience to explain it to your friends and family. It will all work out! I'm a big believer of things happening for a reason. So you got on the wrong train in Pisa? That's okay! You didn't have anything to do when you got back home anyways. You're an hour later but you saw tons of palm trees in a town in Italy you had never been to! That's the kind of stuff you WANT to happen.

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I'm back from my weekend in Prague! So glad I got to Czech (😜 I had to) this city off my list. Although it is a beautiful city, I learned something much more than just enjoying the travel. I learned that to truly enjoy traveling, you need to be have a home to go back to. I didn't find myself in as much awe as I was expecting when I was in Prague, and I don't think that was because it wasn't a marvelous city. I think it's because I've been traveling too much. I know. I of all people said that! But traveling while studying abroad, especially recently when I've been outside of Florence every weekend for the past 3 weeks, isn't always as satisfying as you'd think. You start to become spoiled by these beautiful European cities, so much so that it just seems to be the norm. I have started to lose touch with the American cities that I grew up in, which are vastly different from the European cities I have visited. Luckily I realized this only about 2.5 months into my 8 month stay in Europe so I have time to better myself as a traveler. Just remember what you have back at home, all of your friends and family, and how you have something great and completely different to go back to. So notice every cool little difference, fall in love with it, but also remember the happiness you feel when you're home. The excitement of getting to a new city, a new country even, begins to wear off if you're doing it every week without truly being mindful while you travel. You're not there just to get the pictures and cross landmarks off your list! You're there to experience new places and cultures, find new favorite things, make new friends. It's not going to mean as much to you if you're just going through the motions and Top 10 lists. So long story short, Prague is a great city which I'm sure I would've enjoyed even more if I had been more mindful and realized just how lucky I truly am to be doing all of this traveling across Europe. I have been appreciative, but I think everyone can always become more selfless and appreciative, so that is my mission from now on.