Katie – Florence, Italy

I got the opportunity to study in Florence, Italy for four months during my senior year of the architecture program. The entire reason I got into architecture was because of history; so being able to learn in a historic city was incredible. My roommates and I had an apartment in the Florence City Center; we were able to walk everywhere in the city and take excursions outside of it on the weekends. During my time there I traveled to several cities, including: Venice, Pisa, Naples, Rome, Vatican City, Palermo, Sardinia, and more. I also got to travel outside of Italy, going to: Barcelona, London, Poland, Ibiza, Denmark, France, and Greece .  

The program is with Kent State and the class sizes are comparable to LTU. Our campus building was a renovated palazzo, and looking out my studio window I could see the Duomo. I took three classes while in the program: a studio class that allowed me to design a building on a site within the city limits, a sketching class that took me to different churches and museums to draw in, and a field trip class. The field trip class took us to different cities, like Venice and Siena, where the professors showed us around and we were able to study the cities architecture and urban design, from both modern and historic buildings.

Despite not knowing the language, I was not at a disadvantage. A large portion of Italian citizens speak English and were patient with me when I was trying to learn. I have made connections and friendships with Italian citizens, some of which I still regularly talk to. Having this experience has opened my horizons and has given me a drive to go back to Italy for graduate school.