La Prima Settimana!

Ciao a tutti! 


I've only been here for a week and I can't believe how amazing this trip has been so far! My name is Brady and I am a senior at Stony Brook. As a biomedical engineering major, it was pretty difficult to arrange my schedule to study abroad in Italy, but I finally managed to do it with a little persistence and a lot of help from the Study Abroad Office.  


After the visa process was over, I had a chance to relax and start casually planning out places I wanted to visit while in Europe. I first planned a trip to Nice, France in the French Riviera right before I was to go to Firenze (aka Florence). I researched many of the hotels in Nice and found some really amazing deals through third-party websites like Expedia and Priceline. I ended up paying only about 55£ per night for the hotel and it was just a few minutes from the beach and right near the old city of Nice. I flew from JFK to Brussels, then onto the Nice airport on the Côte d'Azur. I short taxi ride brought me to my hotel and I immediately spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. After four days of lounging around and mingling with the locals, I hoped on a train to Firenze. I had to take a few different trains, but I arrived in Firenze eventually, even after a mishap at the train station! 


As part of FUA, we are housed in the historic area of Firenze. Each group of people is spread across this "walking town." My apartment happens to be next to the train station, close to the river. I live with five other guys in an enormous apartment on a small, active street. Everyone is probably wondering about the food, probably more so since the movie/book Eat, Pray, Love came out, featuring Italian cuisine. I will tell you that the food is different. You can take that however you would like, but no matter what anyone says, I don't believe one can fully say that all Italian cuisine is superior. I have absolutely enjoyed all the food I have had here, but there are still some other foods I miss from home. There is also a Kebab place about 10 meters from my front door which has amazing Falafels! The guys in there like to joke and play around with you and always encourage you to speak Italian with them. 


As this is my first blog, I don't want to make it too long and I will update soon with descriptions of more adventures of my Firenze experience. 


Ciao!