Being in a big city like Rome makes traveling so much easier because there are always cheap flight deals to nearby cities! With this said, I had the chance to travel to the French Riviera for Carnivale during the first weekend of March. The French Riviera has to be one of my favorite places in the world. Traveling from city to city was so easy by train and each town had a beautiful coast. We flew into Nice and stayed there for 2 nights, traveled to Menton and Monaco one day, and Cannes another. It was so refreshing to see the ocean, sandy beaches, beautiful cars, clean streets.

After returning from Nice, I was convinced to go on a trip to Switzerland for the weekend. I was doubtful at first, but it turned out to possibly be the most epic, fun and expensive 3 days of my life. I went with my friend Katie, and we stayed in Interlaken, right in the middle of where all the extreme sports and snow activities take place. We snowboarded on the Swiss Alps, paraglided over Interlaken, and canyon jumped! I couldn’t believe all 3 of those things happened in one weekend. We had so much fun and both agree that it was worth every penny!

For Spring Break, my friends and I traveled to Barcelona, Morocco and Paris. In Barcelona, we had such an amazing cultural experience as we tried new cuisine, explored the artwork of Gaudi, and learned how to salsa dance at the night clubs. In Morocco, we stayed in a city called Marrakech, which we all agreed was our favorite city of the entire trip. One night, we camped overnight in the Sahara desert with the Berbers in small tents. We woke up to the beautiful sunrise over the desert and took camels back to our tour van. Coming to Paris was much different than Morocco, but we quickly adjusted and fixed ourselves up for the beautiful city. We climbed the Notre Dame, went picnicing at the Eiffel Tower every day we were there, went to the Louvre and met so many new friends.

With such a travel packed month, I felt that I was neglecting the city that I was living in: Rome. It’s officially been 3 months in Rome, Italy and I cannot even begin to describe the experience that I’m having here. At first, I only appreciated Rome for its beauty. I was initially awestruck by the monuments, the architecture, the ancient ruins and could only define the beauty of Rome by what I could visibly see. But now I understand a different kind of beauty in Rome. It’s the kind that occurs when you start to slowly understand the people, the language, and the culture. It’s not something you can grasp at first glance, nor is it something you can fully articulate once you’ve got it.

I’ve been learning to appreciate the little things, which has been easy given the amount of time I spend outside each day. My favorite part of the day is walking back home from school. It’s about a 20 minute walk down a main street called Viale di Trastevere. As I walk home, I walk away from the beautiful neighborhood of Trastevere with bright yellow and salmon pink buildings built upon cobble stone streets, and start my way down Viale. I’ve been learning to love Rome for its entirety, not just the touristy parts of the city. The most gratifying part of this entire experience is speaking Italian with the Italians! I was terrible at speaking at first and slowly but surely improved at the language. I’m beginning to break into the Roman culture and the lifestyle, and loving every minute of it.

Elisa – University of California at Los Angeles