First impressions on food and culture varied among students from Santa Rosa Junior College and three other community college districts who arrived in Florence, Italy, Feb. 1 for a 90-day American Institute for Foreign Study program.
For the next three months, they will live in apartments within the city and take regular courses in addition to a mandatory Italian Life and Culture course taught by local lecturers. For many students, this program is not only their first time living in a foreign country but also their first time living away from family. Though others may be familiar with living away, or even abroad, the next three months will entail a stark transition in a new environment.
“I really like it. It’s definitely really cool to be in Europe for the first time,” said SRJC study abroad student Evan Stoeckenius. “There’s just a lot of cultural differences I appreciate. There’s less space, so walking down the streets takes some getting used to.”
He noted that the traffic in Florence is more hectic. “You definitely have to be on your toes. It’s not just one of those places where you can walk across the street and just expect no one to hit you,” Stoeckenius said.
“It’s pretty. And it’s busy. And it is a little overwhelming, but I really like it a lot,” SRJC student Avery Sherman said.
“It’s very beautiful and very walkable,” SRJC student Sophia La Rosa said. “I definitely noticed that there were already cultural differences just when we first got here. Some interesting things that are different here are that you don’t tip waiters, but you do pay a coperto, which is the table fee. And they also don’t measure how much alcohol they give you, so you gotta be careful. And then another difference is they don’t refrigerate the eggs, so we had a hard time finding them.”
While students had mostly positive things to say about Italian cuisine, adjusting to a Florentine palate has been challenging at times.
After checking into their apartment, Sherman and others went out to find some lunch. “None of us could read the menu because it was completely in Italian, and we didn’t have wifi to Google Translate it,” she said. “When we brought our sandwiches back to our new apartment and started to eat them, they were unlike anything we had eaten before.”
Some were covered in a sweet and oniony magenta paste while others were covered in a thick cream loaded with zucchini. “If we went back, we could probably translate the menu beforehand and find something we would like,” Sherman said.
The prominence of pork in Italian cooking has been a struggle for Halal and Kosher students. “It’s hard if you don’t eat pork because there’s a lot of pork everywhere. That’s the main meat, like pastrami and prosciutto, and salami and sausage,” La Rosa said. While she does eat pork, she sympathizes with students who cannot.
While adjusting to a new culture is already a significant challenge, the locals’ reactions to foreigners can further exacerbate it. Fortunately, Study Abroad students feel Italians have received them warmly.
“Compared to other places I’ve traveled internationally, it was a pretty smooth transition,” Stoeckenius said. “The language barrier can be tough, but a surprising amount of people do speak English and they appreciate you trying to speak Italian. That’s something I was relieved by because I was expecting people to not put up with someone who can’t speak their language.”
According to the European Union in 2024, roughly 28% of Italians in total speak English, while half of Italians aged 15-35 speak English.
“You don’t really fit into any part of Italian culture,” Sherman said. “You’re observing from an outer perspective, because you don’t understand what anyone’s saying or you can’t read any of the signs.”
La Rosa was surprised by how many American tourists are in Florence. “Everywhere you walk, you can hear and see Americans,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve been treated horribly for being an American. I think it does make you a target for thieves and scams, but even before you speak, they just immediately know you’re an American.”
According to Business Insider, 15,000 American students study abroad in Florence each year. Additionally, more than 900,000 Americans visited the city in 2023. This makes English incredibly common in a city of 380,000.
Study Abroad students are adjusting to their new environment and are optimistic about the remainder of the semester.
