Giuliana Romeo, Engineering Perspectives of the Renaissance and Sustainability: Florence Summer 2023
I imagined being an “American” in Florence would be a lot more daunting than it turned out to be. Florence is a city that sees thousands of tourists a year, so the locals are very used to interacting with people from all over the world. However, we were lucky to have our program in May, when many of the semester-long students had just left, but the peak summer tourism had not yet begun. Thus, the locals were not so overwhelmed with tourists and foreigners during our time there.
Most people we interacted with on a daily basis knew how to speak English, at least on a basic level. However, this didn’t preclude us from practicing our Italian! Many of the locals were willing to speak with us in Italian if we tried, and gave us a few tips. We were lucky to have a crash course in basic Italian at the beginning of our program, so we knew a few phrases. We interacted with locals every single day. Obviously in places like the grocery store, restaurants, and shops, but also in class. Our art history professor was born and raised in Florence. We saw her in class everyday and it was helpful to know someone so knowledgeable about the city and its history. In some of the smaller towns we visited on the weekends, it was more common to run into a few people that didn’t speak any English. This is when our Italian skills were put to the test!
Another setting in which we met a lot of locals was soccer games! As a class we all attended a soccer game of the local Serie A (top professional league of soccer in Italy) team, Fiorentina. My friends and I specifically really like soccer, so we attended more than one game and even went to a viewing party for an away championship game that was broadcasted in Florence. This was a really fun atmosphere to be in as an American. Italian and European soccer in general is unlike any sporting event I’ve ever experienced in the United States. There are sections of super dedicated fans that stand, chant, and wave huge team flags the entire game. It’s a lot of fun and a really exciting place to be. At the championship watch party that some students and I went to, we were able to talk to and befriend some students our age. It was interesting to meet Italians our age and see how our lives were both similar and different. They were super friendly and even helped explain some of the cultural etiquette for the type of watch party we were at. Overall, I found the locals in Florence to be very welcoming and accommodating, which I was grateful for as a study abroad student.
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