When you walk through Italy, you walk through history. |

Hear it from an insider why you should study abroad in Italy.

Maria Teresa was Aspect Foundation’s inbound exchange student from Italy during the 2014-15 academic year. She studied in Utah, and says “I will forever remember this year as one of the best ones of my life.” She encourages American students to go for the same adventure and says, “I hope that more students will come to the land of pizza and pasta, so that they will learn that we are not just pizza and pasta ;)”

I just came back from a 10 month experience in the United States, and being so far away from home gave me the chance to see so many positive things about my country, Italy.

If I was born somewhere else I would probably want to go to Italy really bad, and now I will give you some of the main reasons.

The school experience is really different, you will not change classrooms every period, you will stay with the same people every hour the whole year, the teachers will be the ones that will move from one class to the other. This will give you the chance to bond with every kid in your class, you’ll find amazing friends that will help you through out the year, because well, we are Italians, therefore really sociable.

School ends before lunch, so you will either go home or stay out with your friends. Most of the school in most of the cities are in the city center, so every place where you can eat is at a walking distance. (Amazing, isn’t it?)

You will rarely need a car, most of the times you will walk, or ride a bike, maybe even take the bus, you can get everywhere by bus!!

We’re used to hanging out a lot, after school and in the evenings, so who wouldn’t have fun?!

We usually go shopping too in the city center, so if you decided to hang out with your friends and go get an ice cream you may find yourself trying some clothes on. It’s the same as a mall, but you’re not inside a building, you’re walking around the city.

Depending on the size of the city you may have to take the subway, but most of the cities are smaller and you can really just walk everywhere (and you will basically be walking through history, our cities are thousands of years old and full of art!)

I would really recommend to come to Italy for 6 or, even better, 10 months. I’ve met exchange students that came here from other countries, and that helped me writing this because of the things that they told me, the main things they noticed. All of them had a lot of fun over here and learned the language without effort, some of them are even considering universities over here!

So if you’re thinking about it, you’re doing great, if you are not thinking about it.. Well you probably should.

Come to this beautiful country full of art history and good food!

– Maria Teresa

Are you ready for your own study abroad adventure? Learn more about how you can spend a summer, semester, or academic year abroad on our Programs Abroad page. Contact Brianne Sherman at (800) 879-6884 to learn more about how high school study abroad can change your life.

Aspect host families receive a $500 discount on the program fee for our semester and year-long programs!