Meeting locals, learning customs and traveling has helped me see the world through a different lens.
By: Nicholas Palmeri
For me, Italy was a safe choice because I am Italian. I mingled with locals my age and helped them with their English. In return, I got to see the world through their eyes. Most relish the opportunity because they are usually the only ones in their family who speak English. The older the Italian, the less likely they are to know English. Seeing elderly people only speaking Italian and not understanding a word of English was eye-opening.
Being in Rome and taking the chance to observe my surroundings made me wonder what it would have been like to grow up here. I began to realize that there is much more to the world than the bubble we put around ourselves. Before I arrived, I focused on learning Italian from scratch in my free time, and when I got to Rome, I began purchasing books in Italian to read on my Kindle. This is definitely a habit that I will take back home because each time you work on a language you are adding to the foundation you have implemented in your brain, like building the walls of a house. Another thing that shocked me was their use of bidets; I’m not used to having one in my bathroom.
I started to drink a cappuccino every morning and I will when I go back home. I don’t know how I went so long without drinking coffee. A typical Italian breakfast consists of a coffee and a pastry. I go to the same coffee shops and the workers know my order. It’s very welcoming.
With all of that said, living in Italy has also given me a better appreciation for my own country. For example, on a materialistic level, there are many things on Amazon that are unavailable in Italy but that ship to the United States. They have low wages here and many Italians want to leave for a better opportunity abroad.
I felt like I was missing out when I learned how often other study abroad students traveled. Many go to a new country every weekend. At first, I was a little jealous because the first few weeks of the semester I had stayed in Rome while others visited countries like the Czech Republic, Austria or Portugal, just to name a few. I asked myself, what are you waiting for? However, I realized that there is no right way to study abroad. Flying every weekend would wear me down (it did when I went to London for a weekend). I would rather explore Italy by train than fly somewhere new every Friday.
The school handbook lists a dozen low-budget day trips that are a train ride from Rome. I took advantage of the handbook. I love taking a train from Roma Termini station and exploring. So far, I went to Naples, Tivoli, Florence, Pisa and a few towns in between with trips to Milan and Venice to come. Tivoli can be considered ‘typical Italy’ and I plan to visit the town again before I head home.
