Weekend Travels

One of my favorite parts of my study abroad experience was the opportunity to travel to places outside of Rome on weekends. While I loved spending my free time enjoying the Roman nightlife, leaving the city on the weekends provided a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the work week. I was lucky to be able to travel to many exciting places.

On my first weekend, I ventured to Croatia. I traveled with the Bus2Alps tour group, and together we endured a 15 hour bus ride to the small town of Split. It was well worth the long ride! In Split we ate fresh seafood, enjoyed the beautiful beaches, and took an island tour. The views were incredible! I enjoyed two relaxing days on beaches that overlooked crystal blue waters with the Alps in the background. My friends and I were adventurous and cliff jumped as well!

Another weekend I traveled with the IES program to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. Pompeii was so interesting. Our tour guide kept our group entertained throughout the entirety of the day. He showed us the ancient brothels, which was a hit for all of our group members. After our tour, we went to a wine tasting at a restaurant on the base of Mt. Vesuvius. The food and wine were both delicious, and I purchased a bottle of the restaurant’s white wine to take home to my family. The following day our program spent the day on the Amalfi Coast, visiting the towns of Amalfi and Positano. We took a boat ride where we saw the beautiful homes of many international celebrities, including George Clooney. This was a great bonding experience for the members of our program.

My friends and I enjoyed the beaches of the Amalfi Coast so much that we traveled to Cinque Terre the following weekend. This was one of my favorite places we visited! We stayed in the town of Vernazza, the fourth city in the series of five. My friends and I found a restaurant that was located at the top of a mountain which overlooked the beaches. Cinque Terre is also the birthplace of pesto, so we dined on pesto pasta while watching the sunset. We spent one day hiking from city to city, which proved to be a difficult feat. But the views or the beautiful coast and colorful buildings of each city were well worth the sweaty hours we spent climbing the mountains. We ended our hike in the fifth city of Monterosso.

Traveling was so much fun and really added to the quality of my summer experience. I loved visiting different places and interacting with different people. I wish I had more time to visit more places in Italy as well as its surrounding countries. All the more reason to go back some day!