NYU Florence is quite literally a paradise. In 1994, the University inherited Villa La Pietra from the Acton family, the largest gift any U.S. university had ever received from another country. The campus consists of five villas, sits on almost 60 acres of land, and boasts gardens and landscapes that people from all over the world paint, write about, and hope to visit. This was my home. The pictures here are just a modicum of what was my backyard.

Raindrops skid across one oval window, then the next. The speckled glass unveils the gray, dull backdrop that is London. The pilot is circling Heathrow; like vultures who have spotted their prey, so are other planes I faintly see through the fog. Within each one are hundreds of people just like me and unlike me. I imagine somewhere in row 42 is a not-so-sorrowful sinner on his way back from Amsterdam. In an aircraft somewhere behind me, a Pole traveling for work—the Pound is stronger than the Zloty, after all. I see AirFrance and think of the blissful and heartbroken souls returning from the City of Love. Hovering in the sky, waiting our turn to land, I also think how those souls ought to have taken the Eurostar.

The time I spent in Italy definitely superseded any expectations I could have had. It wasn't perfect every hour of every day, but looking back on it, I'm glad I chose to take time out of my summer to study and explore there. On my final night in Florence, two friends and I decided to do something memorable. We had never been to Piazzale Michelangelo and figured if we were going to experience it, we were going to do it right. 

Ah, Firenze. I don’t even know where to begin. I fear that I won’t be meticulous enough in my choice of words, that I won’t be able to convey how absolutely stunning this city is. We’ve all seen the motion pictures—Under The Tuscan Sun, Eat Pray Love, Letters to Juliet, even The Lizzie McGuire Movie.  We watch and we dream of one day visiting this Italian paradise and let me tell you, it’s even better than you think it is. I set foot in Florence for the first time a year ago. I had just finished studying in (chilly) London and was as excited as ever to finally be “under the Tuscan sun.”