By: Anthony DiMaria-Sadorski
When I first was planning this trip to Italy, I was super anxious. I had never been out of the country before and it was a whole new experience for me. I had been wanting to go abroad since before the pandemic and now I felt that this was my once chance before I graduate. Once the time finally came for me to go to Italy, I felt more prepared and ready. The plane rides to get there were a little hectic. I had two layovers in Boston and Munich, Germany. After about eighteen hours of traveling I landed in Naples and got shuttled over to my apartment.
At my apartment, I met all my roommates. They were really nice and we got along the whole trip. When we started school, we were introduced to our Italian teacher, Bianca. She was awesome. I felt like I learned so much in her class in just three weeks.
Overall my experience was up and down. For the majority of the trip it was exciting! I ventured out to all the surrounding towns like Capri, Positano, Amalfi, Naples and even took a field trip to the Pompeii excavation site! There was so much character in all of these towns and I took so many pictures of everything that I saw. I will say though that in January, a lot of places in each town are closed so it is definitely more of a spring and summer destination to visit, in my opinion.
The class work was super easy and engaging. My teacher would actually take us around Sorrento and have us practice what we learned in class that day and speak to local shop owners in Italian. It was an amazingly effective way of learning!
I loved every minute of being in Italy over winter break and I can not wait to go back and explore Northern Italy. I highly recommend this trip to anyone who is thinking about going abroad and doesn’t know where to start.