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  • Miles and smiles
  • Miles and smiles

Study abroad

A 113-day adventure by Miles and smiles Read more
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  • Trip start
    January 3, 2025
  • Miles and smilesStudy abroadTraveler
    33

    Ciao Firenze!!

    January 10, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Ciao a tutti! Amo Firenze! It is the greatest place I could have asked for! I have learned more than I can even say in the past three days. I just can't imagine how much I will be lucky to know by the end of my program. I have met some incredible Italians and gone to see so many sites. Did you know Florentines used to build their bathrooms on the end of their houses so they could just poop out of a hole onto the sidewalk below? Firenze is also the city of flowers. It is absolutely beautiful and so much fun. I have been exploring everyday and finding new things all over. The worst part was the grocery store but that is okay I am learning, and I will be grocery shopping as little as possible....Read more

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    Said ciao to Michelangelo!

    January 11, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Today I did a hike to the Piazzale Michelangelo! The view was incredible and something I will be going back to see very often. I walked about 10 miles today all over the city and beyond the gates. Found some amazing things and also saw some wildlife! Guess what it is in the comments even though its a bad picture lol, hint it's a type of rodent!Read more

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    Lucca!!

    January 17, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Went to Lucca!! It was such a nice fresh break from the busy busy beautiful Florence lifestyle. In Lucca they live the slow Italian lifestyle we all hear about. Siesta time in the afternoon is real here and it was fabulous. This cities roman walls are still in tact and that includes tunnels that go underneath them. We were able to walk through them and explore the cities many many manyyyyyyyy churches. This is a must see spot!Read more

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    The tower was definitely leaning

    January 18, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Took a day trip to Pisa and saw the tower! Their cathedral was also super cool to look at. It felt like a mini-Firenze. Same shops, river, and tourist vibes but it was just smaller. One thing that was different was their homes. They actually had separation between homes, and they had front and back yards. In Firenze you have to go out of the city to find homes like that.Read more

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    A little update

    January 23, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    This week has been just as fantastic as the rest! I took an Italian cooking class and learned how to make an appetizer, pasta, two sauces, and a dessert. My school building was built in the 13th century and has been owned by wealthy families ever since. It is kind of insane to see original frescos and sculptures throughout the building. My classes are going well............ and they're definitely my top priority (wink wink). Also found a forest behind San Miniato and it was actually the prettiest thing EVER!Read more

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    Restoration Studio Visit

    January 23, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Today for my art history class I went to an art restoration studio. They placed so much emphasis on not making things look new. It seems like that would be the goal of restoration, but instead the goal is to make the piece look as old as it is while still being legible. We got to see some paintings and sculptures in the process of being restored. With a black light you can actually see where things have been patched or worked on. We learned about a fine line that art restorers have to walk. If a section of a painting is damaged, they can only fix it if it doesn't require any imagination to replace what was lost. It is hard to explain without talking about it but something like a whole face missing would be beyond restoration. One of my favorite parts was learning that they actually take statues and paintings to the hospital to get mri and x rays done. It helps them see what objects are made of and what restoration has been done before. I learned so much but unfortunately can't type it all and don't want to bore everyone lol.Read more

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    ZAGREB!!!!!!

    January 24, 2025 in Croatia ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    FIRST DAY IN ZAGREB! This city is WILDDDDD! I love it so much I have never seen anything like it and also never heard much about it. I don’t know how it’s not on the most recommended cities in Europe list. The food has been AMAZING! The people are also so awesome. Here’s some highlights of the day. We went to the museum of broken relationships. It was sad and funny but so interesting and one of my favorite museums ever. We walked around and explored and ate some yummy Sri Lankan food. The parks here are also so cool and it’s been awesome to see all this green!Read more

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    Fjaka lifestyle

    Jan 26–27, 2025 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    This trip was so much fun. I learned so much about Croatia and the fjaka lifestyle of taking things slow. I have to say I enjoyed taking things slow until every waiter decided to participate as well..... Anyway, I decided to keep notes while I was there so I'm just going to list some of my favorite things I learned and did!

    1. Water is free again! In Italy they never bring water to your table unless you order it. In Croatia I got water brought to me with everything including just a coffee!!

    2. The best thing to eat in Croatia is a cruffin. Croissant shaped like a muffin with cream in the middle. It was AMAZING

    3. There are heart souvenirs all over Croatia and Zagreb. They all have mirrors on the center of them. They are meant to be given to someone you love because when you give them your heart, they see what you love inside of the heart.

    4. They fire a canon at noon everyday right before the church bells go off around the city. This has been a tradition since 1877. The legend is that when Croatia was at war with the Ottomans, Zagreb was never invaded. They were unable to defend themselves against the Ottomans because they were poor and out of resources. They had one chicken left in the whole city which they used to trick the Ottomans. They shot the chicken out of a canon, and it landed on the plate of the Ottoman emperor. This made the Ottomans think they had so much food that they were tossing it away. The Ottomans feared their wealth and power and never tried to invade Zagreb.

    5. Saturdays are the days to show off all the money that you don't have. Everyone dresses up and goes out to shop at markets and eat at restaurants.

    6. The markets in Zagreb all have red umbrellas. The legend of why they're all red is that they used to be grey. A boy and a girl fell in love and kissed under one of the umbrellas and turned it red. Now all of the umbrellas in the city are red.    Read more

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    Palazzo Davanzati

    January 28, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    For class yesterday I got to visit a palace! It was built in the 1300s by a florentine family of the Davizzis. This was one of my favorite museums to visit so far because it felt so real. You could tell what every room was used for. It was huge and decorated so marvelously. There were so many paintings, altar pieces, and sculptures filling the walls of every room. There was also original medal work in the kitchen such as the pots used for cooking and heating water. My favorite rooms were the bed rooms and the kitchen. We also went to Dante’s house but that was way less interesting and also not proven to actually be his house.Read more

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    The Eternal City!

    Feb 1–3, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    This weekend was a trip to Rome! We got to spend Thursday Sunday there for class and free time. We toured all of the big sites but also got the chance to explore some less known things. I went to dinner on the second night and randomly stumbled on a whole square of Roman ruins. It was like a mini–Roman Forum in the middle of a neighborhood. One of the biggest highlights was the free hotel breakfast. I used that as a grocery store for a few days :) Rome was so different from Florence. They could never be compared to each other because of the complete difference in time periods represented across each city. I also saw so many seagulls which took over my camera roll for the weekend. I could go on forever but Rome was amazing and I hope I can go back again one day.Read more

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    So many stairs

    February 5, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    For class I got to climb to the top of the dome and the clock tower. The stairs were definitely worth it for both. Climbing the dome was amazing. We got to get up close to the original frescos on the inside of the dome! We also got to see the spina pesce which was the masterful discovery that allowed this dome to be created without scaffolding at such a large scale! We got to see the tools used to make the dome along with a replica of the dome in a museum! One thing I learned from this is that I must have a rooftop terrace in my future house because we got to see them all over the city. We also got to see the duomo museum which had the original gates of paradise! I can’t even describe them they are so fantastic. Now I’m off to Lisbon Portugal!Read more

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    Lisbon Portugal!

    Feb 6–9, 2025 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Another city that gets a 10/10 from me! The food, people, buildings, and OCEAN! All of it was so amazing. My favorite part was the color of the buildings. In Firenze most of our buildings are yellow which is fantastic but in Lisbon they have yellow, blue, pink, green, orange, you name it. They also have tiles decorating a lot of their buildings. That was my absolute favorite thing about the architecture here. They have a bridge that looks almost exactly like the golden gate bridge in San Francisco and that is because they were built by the same company. They also have a statue very similar to Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. It would be the same, but they ran out of money, so Christ is much much smaller in Lisbon. We visited the Jerónimos Monastery which was soooo cool. It was huge and had a very gothic look to it. Everything I have learned in art history about Monasteries was so helpful here in understanding what certain rooms would be for. The large courtyard picture would most likely be used as a social area/prayer space for monks that live here. One of the best parts was the food. The pastel de nata is the pastry of Portugal! It is an egg custard inside a layered pastry shell, and I will be going back to get more someday. Overall, I loved all of the art in Lisbon. From the floor that you walked on to the tops of buildings, everything was decorated in tile and murals.Read more

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    Fairytale land

    February 8, 2025 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    On my trip to Portugal I met up with Soph! We spent the weekend there and decided to take a day trip to Sintra. That was definitely the best decision we could've made. Sintra just might be my favorite destination of this trip (other than Florence of course.) Sintra was full of castles and palaces. We spent most of the day hiking between them. Ended the day with almost 30,000 steps through the woods and up a bunch of hills to see it all. Our other option was to take a bus between everything but were on a budget. It ended up being such a good choice the forest and hiking was absolutely beautiful and much needed after spending so much time in the city. My favorite building we saw was the Moorish Castle. The complex was all medieval and the palace was massive. It looked like something you would find in a medieval story book. We got to walk through the whole castle and gardens surrounding and we spend over an hour exploring. The view was incredible over Sintra, the ocean, and the other castles surrounding. The Pena Palace was probably the most famous building in Sintra, but we decided to hike to a view point instead of paying to get inside. It was so worth it and such a cool view of the red and yellow castle. I wish I could live in that forest because the green was just amazing. Hope you like the pics!Read more

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    Ceilings of Florence

    February 12, 2025 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    This week I went to several sites for class including the Medici palace, Santa Maria Novella and Orsanmichele. Each one of these had works of art that absolutely blew me away. To get into the art history a little bit Orsanmichele had a raw groin vaulted ceiling. There was no fresco or painting covering up the original brick ceiling which was one of the coolest things I’ve seen. I am used to see fabulous paintings but seeing the raw brick was almost more interesting. I was able to fully see how each valut and art was created. The Medici palace was incredible. They commissioned so much work for their home and private spaces. The private chapel was my favorite room. Santa Maria Novella was also amazing. I saw Masaccio Holy Trinity and Giotto Crucifix along with the original frescos in the chapel. These frescos are the main event of this church now, however in the past, they would’ve been completely blocked off to the public. Only the elite class could go behind the transepts of the church. This means that even the high altar would be out of site for average worshipers. Masaccios holy trinity was covered in scaffolding but we were allowed to climb onto the scaffolding to view it so that was pretty cool.Read more

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    Hiking in tuscany!

    February 13, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    After class ended at Santa Maria Novella I was next to the train station. I got on all trails and picked a hike near a train station a few towns over. I took the train to the highest elevation train stop in Tuscany and hiked for about an hour. It was so beautiful and foggy. I saw two bucks and missed the mountains a lot. Will definitely be exploring the Tuscan hikes more!Read more

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    Casually rode a camel for my bday...

    Feb 15–16, 2025 in Morocco ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    This weekend was a lot of traveling! On Friday morning I took a flight to Malaga, Spain. This was one of the most gorgeous landings of my life! After I landed, I took a bus from Malaga to Algeciras. Again, an absolutely gorgeous bus ride. I couldn't take my eyes off the scenery around me. In Algeciras I stopped for some delicious paella and got on a boat to my third continent! The boat took about an hour and a half and was a stunning sunset ride. We arrived in Tangier and headed to the Airbnb. The culture shock was immediate but luckily I did a little research before going. Zoe helped me find that toilet paper would not necessarily be offered in most bathrooms. That was very true. Even our Airbnb had non so we came prepared with the tissues. French was all over. Every menu and sign had French written on it along with Arabic. We decided that was a sign to get up early and go eat some delicious French crepes for breakfast. That was the right choice because they were some of the best crepes I've ever had! After that we struggled to get cash (sorry for waking my parents up asking for help) but we finally figured it out. Not even restaurants take card in Tangier, so we had to be prepared.
    We headed to meet our tour guide at 9:30. He took us to a couple viewpoints and parks and that was when we started to notice how many stray cats are in Tangier. We continued on and stopped at Cap Spartel which was another beautiful viewpoint of the beach and cliffs of Tangier. This is also the area where the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet. Here we saw four wild boars, one mother and three babies. We made our way to the Hercules Caves which was absolutely beautiful. My personal art history nerd came out here because these caves were once inhabited by neolithic people in 6000 BCE. The patterns on the cave walls were clearly created by humans and were so interesting. The cave is named the Hercules cave because of the face shaped profile it has. We met some German guys that were super fun and had just gotten to Tangier from a trip to Jordan to see Petra.
    After this it was time to ride the camels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    This was one of the most amazing and fun things I have ever done. It was such a cool experience and I would do it again a thousand times. We rode them on the beach and got such great views of the water. The camels were very nice and posed for the 4000 pictures I took of them. After the camel ride the tour guide told us he could drop us off anywhere in tangier. I asked to try his favorite restaurant, and he has great taste! We had some AMAZING seafood tajine. The second best part of the tour (other than the camels) was that we got all of that for 20 DOLLARS!
    We spent the afternoon walking around the Kasbah and Medina areas which was filled with thousands of years of history. We went to the Kasbah museum and saw more neolithic art from the area. After that we hit up the beach for sunset and got some dinner. Turns out even if you aren't ordering Moroccan food, it will still taste like Moroccan food. We ended up with more crepes by the end of the night.
    In the morning Kenna flew to Paris to start her spring break trip!! I flew back to Pisa and decided I wasn't ready to go home. I took a bus to the coast and was surprised with an all white rock beach. There was a market going on, restaurants, music, and lots of gelato. I sat on the beach and took photos for a few hours before heading home. Overall it was a very successful and fun weekend and I wish I could relive it all again!    Read more

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    Orvieto!

    February 22, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    This weekend I was going to go to Venice and then into the dolomites but there was a train strike on Sunday. I decided to take a day trip to Orvieto and Civita di Bagnoregio instead. I'll do a separate post for Civita because I have so many pics! Orvieto was a beautiful town between Florence and Rome. It was built on top of a hill, so I took a cable car to the top. Their Cathedral was huge and highly decorated. It reminded me a lot of the Duomo in Florence but still had very unique decorations. The town was quiet and not very touristy which was awesome coming from Florence now entering the tourist season. There was a lot of parks and one at the edge of the hill the town was built on. This park was beautiful and had a lot of ruins from what looked like medieval architecture. They also had a parking garage! This sounds like a strange thing to include but I haven't seen one of those in a few months. However, on the top level of the parking garage instead of uncovered parking they had real grass soccer fields and a playground. This day trip was definitely worth it and was super fun to check out another Italian town.Read more

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    Civita di Bagnoregio

    February 22, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    This town was the reason I wanted to go to Orvieto. Orvieto is the closest train station to Civita, so you have to take a bus or taxi from the train station to Bagnoregio. Then in order to get from Bagnoregio to Civita di Bagnoregio you have to walk because no cars are allowed in Civita. It is sometimes referred to as the "disappearing town" because similarly to Orvieto, it was built on a hill. This hill is tiny and is slowly eroding away on the sides which will eventually cause the buildings to fall of the sides of it. The town was so beautiful and had a few residents along with a few restaurants. Since the hill was so small every street you walked on you could see the mountains in the distance from. The stone buildings matched the scenery around them and it was so beautiful. I wish I had a little more time here to explore more but it was so cool and so fun to walk around in. No cars was also a great break from almost getting hit by taxis every day in Florence!Read more

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    When in Rome

    February 27, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Took a short trip back to one of my favorite cities ever! Saw the sunset, ate some good food, and found some new ruins! What more can you ask for in Rome. The Villa Borghese was a fantastic addition to places I’ve been in Rome. I hadn’t heard of it or researched it before hand but I saw it on google maps when I got off the train and thought I’d check it out. It is a hub of museums and has tons of ruins throughout the park. Just such an awesome place to walk around. I was walking trying to find a sunset spot and found an area super close to the Spanish steps. The walk between the Spanish steps and Terrazza del Pincio was absolutely gorgeous. A perfect view of St. Peter’s basilica along the road. The terrace was pretty crowded but there were so many spots along the road to stop that were completely empty. Such a good spot to see the sunset without the crowds!Read more

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    Spring break starting in Malta!

    Mar 1–5, 2025 in Malta ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    Woohoo! Spring break is finally here. I started off in Malta after hearing about an air traffic control strike in Greece. It ended up being a great choice because I got to dive! On Saturday we flew in and spent the day in the capital city of Valletta. We are here during carnivale and we got to see some parades, floats, and lots of costumes. It looked like a huge Halloween celebration! I’ve been vegetarian during my time abroad but I couldnt resist seafood here in Malta so I got some mussels. They were AMAZING! On Sunday I got to spend the day diving! It was definitely a unique experience here. Malta has thousands of years of history going back to the Neolithic period. On my first dive I got to see a bunch of old ceramic vessels about 80 feet down that had been over grown by the reef. You could still see the shape of the original vessels which was so awesome. On my second dive we waited a little while on the surface because the water was getting super choppy. We had to go to a different dive site because of the conditions but this dive site was a wreck! The ship was called Coralita X127 and it is a WWII wreck. It was really well preserved and I got to see lots of recognizable parts. The dive guide also let me borrow his flash light to look inside the wreck!
    The next day we took a boat over to comino island and spent the day there. I’ll do another post with those photos! On our final full day in Malta we spent the day at some archaeological sites. We went to the Ghar Dalam cave which was so cool. They did major excavations here in the 20th century and found layers in the cave that told the story of life on Malta. They used to have elephants, hippos, deer, wolves, and so many more animals. Neolithic people also occupied the land. They found a layer in the cave filled with tools and ceramics proving humans lived here as early as 3500 BCE. I have found several tiles on the beaches here that have been clearly weathered. It’s got me wondering how far back some of these things could have been made! This morning we are spending the day at the beach before we take off for Marseille!    Read more

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    J’adore Marseille

    Mar 5–7, 2025 in France ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Spent a few days in the south of France! The more time I spend here the more I learn why my mom always talked about the south of France. It is just beautiful and the people are awesome! Had nothing but great food and fun the whole time we were here. Yesterday we went on the free walking tour which is always the best thing to do in a new city. We saw old Greek ruins dating back 600 years before Christ. We also learned more about what happened in marseille in WWII. There is an entire section of the city that was bombed so badly only three buildings were saved. The old port is a natural port and is perfect for keeping the water flat even when it’s windy. The old port is the reason the Greeks settled here. They built a new port to accommodate the growing city later on. After the tour we went to the store and bought fresh baguette and some cheese. We headed up to Notre Dame de la Garde which is a church built on top of an old medieval castle. The basilica was all the way on the 6th floor of the building because so much of the castle is still in tact. The old castle has a draw bridge door which was so cool to see. Notre dame de la garde is on a huge hill and gave us the perfect panoramic views of Marseille. We spent the rest of the day walking along the beach up the coast a little ways, rode a Ferris wheel, and watched the sunset. While we watched the sunset we sat on some rocks and ate the baguette and cheese. We took the bus back to town and of course ended the day with some crepes. This morning before heading to Barcelona we stopped at a cafe and a bakery and got the most delicious croissants! Marseille is on my list to come back to for sure!Read more

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    Views of Malta through my camera

    March 6, 2025 in Malta ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    Our day trip to Comino Island was one of the absolute best parts of spring break. No one lives here and the island is basically free to explore on foot. It was such an awesome day walking around exploring the cliffs, lagoons, and caves. The water was unlike anything I have ever seen before. I was waiting to post pics from here until I got my camera photos. The phone doesn't do it justice. The camera doesn't either, but it is closer. I think I will see this water in my dreams for the rest of my life. The cliffs on this island and all over Malta were absolutely amazing. I also went to the Dingli Cliffs at sunset which was the best decision ever. I spent the time taking pics and talking to my parents on the phone which was the best! In both these spots it was a fantastic break from cities and tourists. I can imagine it is much busier in the summer when the water is actually warm to swim in but for now it is empty!Read more

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