Semester in Italy?

Question

I am going to be spending next semester abroad in Italy. This is the First time I have left North America so I'm pretty Excited. We get weekends to ourselves so I plan on traveling. I am Spending the Semester in Florence. Other than the typical spots like Rome, Piza, Venice and so on where should I go? Where are some nice places that arn't on everyones list? Any nice little villages or cool places I may overlook? Like Tuscania, heard thats nice? Also aside from Italy I wanna travel to some other European countries? What do you guys suggest and why? Its for Photo so picturesque places are ideal. Thanks very much

Answer 1

Perugia, Siena, San Gigiamano, Assisi ..... all great small hill towns that are great and I believe all are listed in 1000 places to dee before you die.  The countryside is phenomenal.  I just returned from Italy, Greece, Turkey and the Greek Isles and Italy is a must with Greece second especially Athens and the islands.  By the way Perugia has a large university iand is a great college town of many nationalities......See them all.

Answer 2

Italy is incredibly picturesque and looks extremely good in photo, sometimes even better than in reality! You could be blind and still take lovely pictures of Italy.

The Italian riviera near Genoa is my favorite place. The prettiest towns are Portofino, Nervi, Santa Margherita, Camogli, Arenzano, San Remo and Noli. Also, check out the Cinque Terre which is great for young people.

http://www.rivieraligure.it/citta.php?CL...

Answer 3

There are lots of places you can go for photos. Relatively close to Florence, there's Lucca - go to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower, Duomo, and Baptistry and then take the train to Lucca for the rest of the day; it's a 20 min ride for 2.30 euro. Cinque Terre - 5 small towns along the Ligurian coast connected by trails - spectacular views. Siena, Orvietto, Arezzo, and Perugia are all worth seeing. If you go to Arezzo for the Giostra (joust), it's a big celebration with people in medieval costume. You can easily get to Pompeii, Capri and Sorrento by taking the train to Naples. There are small hill towns throughout Italy that are scenic.

Trento is worth visiting - there's a good castle and several medieval buildings. Garda Lake is good - there are several castles and Roman ruins in addition to the views of the mountains and lake - Sirmione and Malcesine are particularly nice.

You can take the night train from Florence to Munich for a weekend. Munich is worth visiting on it's own or you can take a train from there to Fussen and see Neuschwanstein castle. There are also night trains to Paris, Barcelona, or Vienna. Prague and Budapest are both very scenic. Amsterdam is also an easy trip.

There are cheap flights available within Europe. This site is a good resource for identifying the budget airlines that fly between a given pair of cities. http://www.whichbudget.com/ There are links to the airline sites to find specific prices and schedules.

The Italian train website is: http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html