Bayes Abroad

A blog by Exchange Students

Month: October 2017

Introducing…Italy!

Mid-term break has just finished so it’s time for me to update!

Prior to our mid-term break, we travelled more regions of Italy and explored more places within Milan! In the middle of September, we travelled around Tuscany. It is even more beautiful than the pictures and what we were expecting. We began in Siena where we learn about the Palio through our walking tour and went inside the most dazzling duomo with amazing details! We continued onto Florence where we partied and spent the night. Florence is a magnificent city with a grand duomo, many art galleries and amazing food (like most places I have visited in Italy). What I really liked about the city was that it was easy to walk around and see everything so spending two days there gave us plenty of time to explore and shop! The next day, we went onto San Gimignano where we saw the remarkable, famous views of Tuscany with the old style villas and vineyards. We spent an hour in Pisa, it was interesting to see the Leaning Tower in person and take some cheesy pictures however, outside of this there was not much to do so not a lot of time is needed here.

Although, it has been fun exploring different areas within Italy, my friends and I decided to take time to stay in Milan and see some of the best attractions especially the fashion ones which Milan is known for. We have taken trips to Brera, where they have many vintage boutiques and old style apartments. Navigli is also a very urban area within Milan which I didn’t know about before arriving, but now I spend most of my time there trying out different bars, restaurants and aperitivo’s! It was Milan Fashion Week during September which was a great experience. It was great fun dressing up and exploring the fashion districts seeing what was happening in the city during this bustling time. I have also visited the most grand cemetery and busy chinatown which we came across by accident, but was very exciting. I took a day trip to Bergamo (which was only an hour on the train), where we took two funiculars to the top of the old quaint city. This was the first time I experienced cold weather in Italy but it made the trip more enjoyable as it felt autumnal and gave us an excuse to stop for coffee to keep warm all the time.

Recently, a few of my friends and I took a weekend trip to tour Cinque Terre. I have to say this has been my favourite trip so far! We began in Monterosso al Mare where our train arrived. We spent a few hours relaxing by the beach (in October?!) before enjoying the best seafood spaghetti by the coast. We hiked for 2 hours to the next town of Vernazza, which was exhausting but so worth it as we watched the most beautiful sunset! From here, we went to Riomaggiore where we stayed the night. As we were tired from the hike the previous day, we decided to be cheeky and take a train to the next town, Corniglia. We arrived in Manarola later that day after some more seafood lunch. Every town was different in its own unique way and the friends I travelled with made this experience even more fun!

 

Over the mid-term break I had the opportunity to have some time to catch up on work and revise the topics we have covered. I’m finding my courses very interesting and enjoyable but also very different to London due to teaching techniques. Additionally, I have had many opportunities to work with some great people in completing our mid-term assignments. After catching up with some lecture notes and finishing our mid-term exams, I decided to tick off some more places on my bucket list and journey through Italy. I find it to be very interesting here as everywhere in this extraordinary country is so different. I took a two-day trip to venice and travelled to the other islands of Murano and Burano. Venice is such a unique place, I have never seen anywhere like it before. It is a very romantic city with the gondolas and canals, especially at night when it was all lit up. Burano is one of the coolest places I have visited as all the houses are different colours and the people are so friendly. After enjoying some more seafood, we headed back to Milan.

 

I have really been enjoying Italy; the travelling, studying and socialising balance. It has been really fun to meet people from so many different places who have common interests like travelling, but also staying on top of my work has been a priority. The time I had off gave me some time to reflect and catch up. I am super excited to plan some more trips, try great food and meet many more amazing people.

Ciao,

Jasmine 🙂

Bella Italia !

so far so good! Italy is really love. Whatever you want: sun, food, fun anything you would wish for.

past 2 weeks have been very busy for me. I decided that Milan is not enough if Italy, I grabbed my backpack with my boyfriends and jumped on the first train that was going to Venice. Venice is very unique. beautiful and mesmerizing. however, the smell of the water will bother you throughout the whole journey in Venice. as usually happens we were fooled and fed by frozen pizza in restaurant, so you should choose your dining place carefully. in the evening we jumped on the train and went to Verona. Verona is love. not only the city of Love, but love itself. every street of the town is full of love. there is too much Shakespeare. Small streets and ancient buildings make you feel like you are the Juliet. you should go there for real if you are in love, have been in love or want to fall in love.

next weekend was for Rome. every road goes to Rome, eventually. Rome is history, legend, the city from unreal world. Every piazza and building is of huge historical meaning. to be honest I cannot live in Rome, but I can visit it every month. You should go to Trevi and ice cream as did Audrey. I had the real Roman holidays with my boyfriend.

 

The midterm week started so now  I have to go, but will be back soon, maybe with some pictures from my weekend trips.

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