For my third and final blog post I wanna talk about all the fun places I traveled to on the weekends and everything I learned while studying abroad. The first weekend trip I went on was to Venice with API. Venice was beautiful and I am so lucky I got to visit before it goes underwater. Venice is a city full of canals and my favorite thing we did was go on a gondola ride through the city. The second weekend I visited Cinque Terre with some friends I met during the program. Cinque Terre was gorgeous and consisted of many island towns on the Italian coastline. To get there we took a train from Florence with two transfers and we booked a VRBO which was an affordable place to stay for the weekend. The first day we arrived we booked a boat tour to see all the beach towns and go for a swim by the coastline. On the second day we went to the beach and rented chairs by the water. For lunch, I wanted to try pesto pasta because pesto was invented in Cinque Terre. We ended up going to a restaurant by the water and my pesto pasta was delicious. For my third weekend, my roommates and I booked a trip to the Amalfi Coast with Bus2Alps. It was about a 6 hour bus ride from Florence, but it was more than worth it. My roommates and I also went on a few awesome day trips when we didn’t have class. One of these trips was seeing the leaning tower of Pisa. It is beautiful in person and really does lean more than you think. After seeing the tower we grabbed lunch at a nearby cafe and got some gelato and walked around while soaking it all in. Lastly, my favorite quick day trip was Rome. Rome was only about a 2 hour train ride from Florence and was full of amazing sites. We did a whole walking tour of the ruins and the Colosseum which was very interesting and full of great sightseeing. After the Colosseum we saw the Trevi Fountain which was full of tourists but beautiful nonetheless. After our long day of touring we got gelato and headed back to the train station. The last weekend trip of my stay in Europe we went to Croatia. Croatia was one of my favorite destinations by far because it was full of amazing views, the nicest people, and great seafood. In Croatia, my friends and I went on a ATV tour through the countryside and a boat ride through the crystal blue waters of Split, Croatia. I highly recommend a trip to Italy’s neighboring country. Shortly after my Croatia trip it was time to return home to the U.S. After a month of not seeing my family it was amazing to reunite with them back at the airport. After being abroad for about a month I realized how much I grew as an individual. From learning about new cultures, experiencing new things, meeting new people, living by myself abroad, and pushing myself out of my comfort zone I can truly say I am now a better version of myself and I highly encourage other students to travel to new places as well!
