Type of housing: Student Hotel (Medici)

Arranged by: Independently - My choice

If returning, I would choose: Apartment/House

Why? Although I love the hotel accoms, I did not connect with the other 10 American exchange students living there; so at first, I was really lonely and depressed. But, I met my friends through classes and my classmates. My friends lived in the program-arranged apartments and it was just a better arrangement. They were cheaper, closer to the classes, and easier to meet people and connect with roomates. Plus, there were no laundry facilities at the hotel, and it's not fun dragging bags of laundry on 2 bus trips and through Florence as creepy men leer at you because your bra has trailed out of the laundry bag....

Personal comments:
Apartments were varied in appearance and size, but all the ones I saw were privately owned and all over the city. People were generally happy with their roommate circumstances and facilities.

Describe host city: Students interact with the local community without much university involvement

Activities, Nightlife, Travel: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

Personal comments:
I'm not a big clubber or bar hopper, but there are a ton of bars in which to get drunk and blow all your cash (that was almost double b/c of the exchange rate) on and go home with an either good looking or skeevy foreign guy! Go to all the muesuems- it's Florence- they're amazing! So much art and history, it;s mind blowing! Also, travel, travel, travel! All over Italy and Europe! The train is really easy to use in Italy and not so expensive, you can go to almost any Italian city! But, trains are notoriously always late arriving and departing in Italy, and staff at the stations are not usually helpful in my opinion. Also, the people who hang around the stations (especially in Florence and Bologna) are really, really creepy and dangerous. Ladies: be really careful and don't go alone, and be careful of the underground areas....

Course recommendations:
The courses are all great! But, too many annoying and spoiled Americans students. It's hard to find cool foreign students to chill with.

Personal comments:
It's hard to study when you're traveling and hanging out all the time! But, I really enjoyed my courses, I learnt so much and the professors are really cool and sweet (they're like kinda family), not stand offish like in America. Classes were generally easy and not demanding, and American style with some papers and two exams.

Language of instruction: English

Main source of funding:
Family

Other sources of funding:
Personal savings

Work opportunities:
It was not legal for me to work

Personal spending habits:
Exchange rate is bad for Americans. I blew my entire savings account on shopping and travel. But, you can find cheap things there like amenities and clothing.

Food: was the same price as at home.

Travel, Nightlife, Overall, Telephone, Housing: was less expensive than at home.

I wish I had known...
That it is really hard to meet people at this school if you do not come with your university or with friends of your own. It really makes you grow up fast and become independent. Italy, while being one of the most magnificent places on earth, is a very difficult and bureacratic country to live in.

In my opinion:
I loved it but I'm not sure everybody would.