Some 18,000 American students study abroad in Florence each year, but what does “studying abroad” really mean in Florence, and are we students truly studying abroad or merely abroad while studying? I’ve struggled repeatedly with this question during my time here. Being a student gives one a sense of superiority over the tourists who crowd the streets around the Duomo, but perhaps falsely so. Tourists, at least, don’t claim to be fully immersed, while students do, though many barely engage with Florentine culture and life.
Many study abroad programs here are designed as little more than a thin recreation of American college or perhaps high school life. As a student excited to delve into the culture and history of Florence, I was disappointed by the bland and restrictive program I was met with. Other than a change of backdrop and slightly more beautiful architecture, many students’ lives change very little while studying abroad in Florence.
A crucial part of this disconnect is linguistic. Many American programs for studying abroad in Florence do not require any level of previous study in Italian language, meaning they are filled with students unable to speak the native language of the country they are supposedly studying in. Consequently, actually interacting with locals can be extremely difficult in a city where they are already a scarce resource. Indeed, a presentation by AACUPI (the Association of American College and University Programs in Italy) in 2024 reported that only 15 per cent of American students studying abroad in Italy interact continuously with Italians and the majority never or only occasionally interact with Italians. For all that study abroad programs tout their ability to expose students to new ways of life, students remain, perhaps by design, siloed in their colleges’ insular American communities.
Similarly, many students are not driven or encouraged to engage with Florence on an academic level. Given the increasing dominance of STEM in higher education, only a tiny minority of students appear to be intellectually curious and engaged with the history and culture of Florence. Many study abroad programs have consequently shifted focus, making their classes as easy as possible and opting for “fun” activities like wine tasting over serious discussions of Dante. In my own program, a miniscule percentage of events, classes and lectures have focused on Florentine history and art, despite this being exactly what defines the city. For the few hours a week that students here spend studying, one might hope they might at least learn more about the city they are living in, but alas that doesn’t seem to be the case! Furthermore, as many American students, having never been to Europe before, use studying abroad as an opportunity to visit other countries, many programs do their utmost to restrict students’ ability to travel or, indeed, engage in any activities outside their program. Whether prompted by fear of liability or responding to the lack of curiosity exhibited by their student body, many administrators limit independent exploration, treating students more like minors in need of chaperoning rather than aspiring scholars. Studying with fellow Americans, speaking in English and shepherded through the rare moments of cultural engagement with the city that do occur, many students studying abroad here seem to live in a parallel city, one that has very little resemblance to the Florence of the past.
It is no surprise, then, that Florence increasingly feels like a city hollowed out from within not only by the hordes of tourists but also by the very students who hope to obtain an authentic Italian “study abroad” experience. The historical center of Florence feels now almost completely devoid of culture, filled with identical shops selling plastic tat and imported leather, horrendously expensive Italian restaurants and Instagram-worthy tourist experiences. Ironically, in Florence, experiencing true Italian culture often means escaping the city center and exploring the more marginal areas in the city where locals still reside.
To those students who do hope to truly study abroad, I can only encourage them to make a concerted effort to break out of the American bubble as much as possible. My best memories here have been these slow, awkward moments of true cultural engagement: eating with locals and conversing haltingly at a trattoria, trying to piece together with difficulty a lecture in Italian by an expert on Florentine history, and exploring the churches and tiny museums off the beaten path without classmates or a guide. Universities must design programs that prioritize language acquisition, intellectual immersion and serious cultural study. Students, in turn, must resist the comforts of the American enclave. To truly experience Florence, one must embrace the discomfort and challenge of adapting to a foreign world, an unfamiliar tongue and a new culture. To truly study abroad, rather than simply study while abroad, we must demand more of our institutions and of ourselves.
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