Submitted by Alexandra Cortes on the 2017 winter session program in Italy sponsored by the Department of Psychology …
This week of my adventure has been great! This week, I did the most traveling that I have done or am going to do for this entire program. I was able explore Florence, Venice and Siena. Florence is very comparable to Delaware in the sense that there may not be too many things to do in the city, however, if you are willing to travel 1-2 hours in any direction, you can find many interesting cities full of history to explore. I think over all I do enjoy Florence more than Rome, just because it feels cleaner and more open compared to the New York City feel in Rome. One of the amazing things about walking around in Florence is that you could pass an alley and see the mountains that surround the city and it’s gorgeous. One of the best views that I was able to get of the city was from a place called the Piazza di Michelangelo.
The two other cities we were able to explore served as great day trips during a long weekend that we had during our program. Venice was gorgeous and everywhere you turn there was such picturesque scenery. Even though Venice is beautiful, it was definitely very hard to navigate since the city is practically a maze. One of the things we had to work through again was the language barrier. Even though, we were able to communicate in English at some places not everywhere was as easy to communicate as it had been in Florence. Florence has definitely been amazing as far as the number of people who can speak English; almost everyone can and it was another more positive thing than the Rome experience. In Venice, there were definitely some tourists, but it was mainly filled with the local people and we were able to see their market which was very extensive with local foods mainly consisting of seafood. Siena was another great city we were able to explore; however, it didn’t really live up to expectations. Siena is supposed to be known for its scenery, but there wasn’t much of a “wow” moment compared to other views we have seen in other cities. There isn’t much to do in Siena, but it was nice to visit especially since it had the least touristy feel of the cities, it can almost be compared to a suburban area.
Overall, my program has gotten much more exciting since this has definitely been a week of exploring for me!