studentsineurope

I like to get out in the country when I travel abroad. It’s hard not to fall in love with Europe’s cool urbanity, but that doesn’t mean you should forget about seeing its natural beauty, too. Europe is a continent of snow-capped mountains, Alpine pastures, glaciers, rivers, rolling hills, and secluded beaches. Whatever kind of [...]

I had been to Italy five times before I made it to Florence, the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, so I was thrilled when I finally booked my ticket to go.
I wasn’t disappointed. Florence is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen, with medieval and Renaissance churches in every practically every piazza, interesting [...]

Getting from place to place in Sardinia can be a real pain, but the lack of convenient public transportation is the only drawback I can think of to this strikingly beautiful and interesting destination. Because Sardinia is easy to reach from many major cities in Europe, it makes a great getaway during your study abroad [...]

If you’re a student traveler, there’s a good chance you’ve run across this problem: RyanAir (or your budget airline of choice) flew you into the tiniest and most unused airport around and now you don’t know how to get to the city. Or perhaps you’ve run into a related problem: you want to get to [...]

I love swearing in Italian. The words are fun to say and the phrases conjure up images that I, at least, think are funny. Of course, by now you’ve realized that I’m not going to teach you any of the really nasty swear words – I’ll let you learn those on your own (if you [...]

If you’re a student traveling abroad, you’ll want to be sure you’re insured. Many health plans don’t cover costs when you’re out of your home state, let alone out of your home country. Even though it can be expensive to purchase and it’s easy to adopt the attitude that “nothing will likely happen,” no one [...]

Florence can be overwhelming. In a city dedicated to beautiful things, from churches to palaces to designer shoes, student travelers can have hard time knowing where to go to take home a piece of the loveliness at a student-friendly price. One of the best options is to head to the city’s largest market, the market [...]

Finding Internet abroad isn’t as much of a problem as it used to be. Airports are usually equipped with WiFi (though you generally have to pay for it), youth hostels and budget hotels advertise their Internet hook-ups to attract backpackers, and even small cities have Internet cafes. The train I took from Groningen to Amsterdam [...]

Most of the time when you’re backpacking, you have your itinerary planned. You know which cities you want to visit, you know how many days you’re going to spend in each, and you’ve planned which sites you most want to see. Perhaps most importantly, you have a guidebook or a map.
Sometimes, though, you find yourself [...]

Aperitivo is one of my favorite Italian traditions. It’s like America’s happy hour, but so much better. Aperitivo starts sometime between 5 and 6:30 pm, which is helpful for student travelers who haven’t had time to adjust to the late Italian dinner hour (be warned – some restaurants won’t start serving food until 7 or [...]