My All Time Favorite

I know I keep talking about all of my favorite parts of my study abroad trip and how each one is “my favorite,” but I am not joking when I say this part is my favorite! On our last weekend in Italy, we traveled to Cinque Terre and I love this place so much! Simply because, Cinque Terre is a city that is more tropical than the rest of the city and it had beaches! I am a beach girl so I loved it!

Cinque Terre is made of villages that are along the coastline: Monterosso Al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. These are all connected but you can only get to each of them by a train that runs up and down all day. It is very tropical and know for their amazing fruit and rocky beaches! Their beaches are not like American beaches, they are very small and also filled with rocks as the sand. It is still a beach though, and one of my favorites that I have been too!

  • The view from my bed.
  • Breathtaking photo of Cinque Terre.
  • Coastline in Cinque Terre
  • A view of the beach.

We were here for a weekend and let me just say..I could have stayed a lot longer but I made the most out of it while I was there. The seafood is the bomb. Of course, we are right on the shore line in Italy…I couldn’t expect anything less.

This place was by far my favorite and had the most amazing “picture-perfect” views. I cant wait to go back one day and explore more of this amazing city. Anyone who has a heart for travel and is still in college, STUDY ABROAD!! It is the best decision I have made!!

Safe Travels~Zoey

Second stop…Venice

Here we go with another amazing part of this study abroad trip to Italy!! So, even though our main “home grounds” were Florence during this whole month while we were traveling, we got to go to some other places outside of Florence! One of these places was Venice, Italy, and must I say that it was one of my favorite little towns!

Venice was not a destination that was on the itinerary through study abroad, so on my “free weekend,” I took of advantage of going here! There was one weekend out of the four weeks I was Italy where they let us go wherever we wanted, wether it was by ourselves or with a group of people. So, my friend and I decided that we were going to take a day trip to Venice on this weekend.

Venice, Italy is by far the most cultured area I have ever been too! Venice is a group of islands that are separated by canals and bridges…and can I just say..I didn’t know that this city was on water until I found out we had to ride a boat to get to it! I also found out that there are apartments that people live in here and they just island hop. Its a pretty neat town!! All of the cool little shopping areas and pasta restaurants that are local and also amazing!

I also got to ride a gondola while here!! I definitely recommend that you ride a gondola if you ever go to Venice…if there is one thing that you do in Venice…it is that!! I also got to learn about some of the monuments that are in Venice, like St. Marks Square and St. Marks Basilica. These two are beautiful and the center part of where we were in Venice!

  • Pasta restaurant I ate at.
  • View from a bridge while crossing to another island.
  • St. Marks Square

This place is by far one of the coolest I have been too because of the atmosphere that it provides, and Venice should be on everyones bucket list!! Still though, if it wasn’t for my study abroad opportunity I wouldn’t have been able to go here!! If there is somewhere you want to go, I encourage you to book it the flight and see where life takes you from there!

Safe travels~ Zoey

First stop…Florence

One of the main goals in life is to be able to travel the world as much as I can!! I love to travel and I have learned so much about myself every time I get tot travel somewhere new…sounds cliche..but its so true!! My family has always been big travelers and we usually travel together…but the most fascinating place I have been to so far, is Italy!! I got this amazing opportunity to do so through my University’s study abroad program!!

The term “study abroad” was always so fascinating to me because just the thought of not only traveling to a different country…but getting to go and actually learn about the place is so neat to me!! I have always been told to take every opportunity you can, and this opportunity was in front of me and so I was ready!!

I stayed in Italy for a month and in this month, I learned all the history and amazing things Italy is about!! Our “homeground” (where our apartment was for the month) was in Florence, and so I got to fall in love with the city of Florence real quick (and it was the only place I didn’t get lost at since I basically lived their for a month)!! The culture is so different there and all of the architectures are just amazing! The food…aka the gelato… is something I can say I miss the most 🙂

  • The view from the streets below our apartment
  • My breakfast every morning
  • Imagine meeting here every morning…
  • The streets of Florence
  • View from a rooftop restaurant we found!

Every morning, we would wake up and go on tours of either a famous monument, museum, or a church..we would learn about the history of whatever was our tour for the day and then we had free time starting at noon and the rest of the day!! Just about every other day we would take “day trips” to a city that was outside of Florence…like Orvietio or Cinque Terre (these are just two of the other places we went)…and this was fun because we got to visit a lot of other cities in Italy without having to carry around the luggage every other day…this was a big deal since you had to walk everywhere…!!

I learned so much about the history of Florence and how their buildings and churches were made..its unreal…but I wouldn’t trade the experience or the friendships I made for anything!! If you have every considered studying abroad…I recommend you just do it!!

Safe Travels ~ Zoey