Ciao a tutti, and welcome back to my blog!
As my first semester in Florence has come to an end, I wanted to share with you my favorite experiences of the past four months, from the places I visited to the restaurants I ate at, to give you an inside look at my time abroad during the fall semester! And so, in no particular order, here are some highlights of my first semester in Florence:
Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany
As my first trip outside of Italy while abroad, traveling to Munich to experience the world’s biggest folk festival was so much fun! I got to travel with my friends through a program called Bus2Alps, (which is an amazing tool for traveling as a study abroad student,) that took us by bus from Florence to Munich. While at the festival, we had amazing food, met all kinds of people from all over the world, and shared and created memories that will last forever. This trip was definitely a top 10 for me, and if you ever get the chance to participate in a cultural experience like Oktoberfest, don’t waste it!
Trattoria Za-Za
This was one of my absolute favorite restaurants in Florence! Conveniently located next to the Mercato Centrale and close to the Duomo, this popular restaurant has amazing pasta dishes that give you the perfect taste of Italian cuisine. My favorites were the tagliolini with homemade pesto and the spaghetti carbonara. But even if you’re not much of a pasta person or are craving something else, the menu has multiple other options ranging from salads to fish to steak, all of which are amazing!
Castiglioncello, Italy
This small beachside town located about an hour away from Florence by train was such a nice retreat from the busy, bustling city. While the weather was still warm, I traveled with my friends to Castiglioncello for the weekend to stay at a small hotel and swim in the warm Mediterranean Sea. The weather was perfect when we went and the water was an unbelievable crystal-clear blue. We stayed the entire weekend at the beach, enjoying the sun and ocean air one last time before the weather changed, and it was an unforgettable trip!
Ditta Artiginale
Live, laugh, LOVE Ditta Artiginale. If you know anything about the coffee situation in Europe, you’ve probably heard that Europeans don’t really do iced coffees, and they don’t really do the “American idea” of a coffee shop either. Sure, they have plenty of cafès but nothing like a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts where you can quickly grab an iced coffee and breakfast to-go or stay the day at a table doing work. That’s why my friends and I became so obsessed with Ditta. This coffee shop is basically an American-style coffee shop with several locations throughout the city. It has various meals you can order for brunch until 3pm, a whole case of pastries, great coffee, free Wi-Fi, and you can sit at a table and work for as long as you want (except for on the weekends, but that’s a different story.) After my friends and I discovered Ditta, we could be found at any of the locations almost every day during our free time. Ditta is also largely popular with study-abroad students, making it a great way to meet new people in the same setting and experience as us. And especially because I love coffee, this chain is definitely one of the places I am most looking forward to seeing when I return for the spring semester!
The Santa Croce Christmas Market
If you know me at all, you probably know that I love all things Christmas; decorations, music, movies, pine trees, lights, winter vibes — you name it. So when I learned that Santa Croce was having a Dutch-themed Christmas market right in its piazza, I was ecstatic! My friends and I probably visited the market together about 5 times, and I visited it even more because it was always on the way home for me. The lights, music, and Christmas vibes were exactly what I needed to get into the Christmas spirit, especially since our finals were so spread out during the last couple of weeks and stressful. I’ve never been to a Christmas market before so this was by far my favorite Christmas event I’ve ever been to. Even though I never bought anything but food, drinks, and desserts at the market, it was still so much fun to walk around and enjoy Dutch-themed cuisine, especially at night when the lights turned on.
Miscellaneous
Now without wasting too much of your time, here are a few other photos of various experiences I feel made my first study abroad semester more memorable and that I would love to share with you!
Thank you for reading all the way through my latest blog, I hope it was just as fun to read about as it was to write about it and that you learned something new about Florence! And until next semester, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
A dopo,
Vinnie
