Here is what to expect for a typical day in the life of a student studying art history in Italy!!
Morning!!
- Enjoy a delicious breakfast of meat, cheese, fruit, and either a pot of coffee and cream, or (my favorite) a machine that offers cappuccinos, lattes, and espresso shots on demand.
- Put on a comfortable outfit for a day of exploring in the Italian heat.
- Finish up those assignments or videos to prepare for the day! We would complete daily videos and quizzes for the sites we would visit that day.
Embark!!
- Walk with your group to your first destination! On our first day, we visited Galleria Borghese, the villa of a papal art collector. I loved it so much that I wrote my final paper on one of the sculptures there, Bernini’s David.
2. Explore, explore, explore!! In between planned sites, take every opportunity to visit the city. On days when we would have a couple hours in between sites, we would walk slowly to the next one, stopping along the way. This will take you on many fun side quests, like craft stalls and even a renowned leather school at a monastery in Florence!
3. Eat and eat some more! For lunch, I recommend getting sandwiches or pizza on the go for less than 10 euros. I mean, look at that, are you kidding me? And of course, a mid-afternoon stop for gelato or affogatos is necessary.
4. Visit your second site, or enjoy a free afternoon!
5. For the art history classes, we were given a list of sites and had to pick a few to visit in each city. This gave us a way to structure our free afternoons and allowed us to explore parts of each city that we would not have seen otherwise! For Italy, these were often cathedrals!
Reel it in, you have a few options!
- Keep it up! Just go, go, go. Shop, walk, explore until dinner, which may be later than you are expecting. We usually did not eat dinner before 7pm, and it is probably expected that you even eat closer to 8 or 9pm! Personal preference still applies, but be aware of the different expectations for meal times!
- Go back to the hotel, take a power nap, and go back out later for dinner. In some cities, like Rome, this was convenient because our hotel was close to our excursions. However, in cities like Florence, it made more sense to just stay out and about until bedtime. By the second week, it is easy for the stamina to give out, so don’t beat yourself up for needing an evening or two to take a breather!
- Dinner!! If you eat a quick lunch, feel free to have a sit down dinner. Keeping one meal quick and easy and another meal sit down helps minimize those food costs!
- Do your assignments as you go!! Do not leave videos, quizzes, or any writing assignments until the end of the trip, even if it means some late nights.
Every day will look different, but it will be a blast! Take advantage of the free time and explore, explore, explore!