Ciao!

It’s been a while since my last blog post, but I have finally arrived in Genoa, Italy! It’s been a pretty hectic week. I got here on Saturday afternoon and had my first week of classes. I feel like I have adjusted well to my new home (for the next 5 weeks).

The house that we are staying in is very nice. It’s owned by an Italian family and they rent out part of their house to students. There are four other girls from the University of Pittsburgh that live with me, and we have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen. Breakfast food is provided for us by the owners of the house, but we are responsible for the rest of our meals.

The house itself is relatively spacious and comfortably houses the five of us. However, air conditioning is very uncommon in Italy, and our accommodations are no exception. Genoa has a pretty moderate climate, but it can get very hot during the day, so we keep the windows open to keep the house cool. Unfortunately, this causes bugs to get inside, and bug bites are another very common thing for this area.

Our home is in an area called “Castelletto”, which is on top of a very very large hill. To get to the main part of the city (also where are classes are held) takes about a 15 minute walk down the hill. However, there is an elevator that you can pay to take back up the hill, as it is incredibly steep takes about 20 minutes to do.

The main challenges that I have faced with this home is the lack of air conditioning, bugs, and the hill. It took a few days to get used to the heat and the large amounts of walking, but I think I have successfully settled in now.

The things that I love most about my home here is the independence that comes with it, and my roommates. We are responsible for the cooking and cleaning of the house, which is really neat in my opinion. I also am incredibly lucky to have such wonderful roommates; they certainly help me enjoy my time in Italy.