salliemullen
| Forum role | Member since | Last activity | Topics created | Replies created |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member | Aug 27, 2011 (14 years) |
- | 1 | 1 |
- Forum role
- Member
- Member since
Aug 27, 2011 (14 years)
- Last activity
- -
- Topics created
- 1
- Replies created
- 1
Bio
I'm an Italophile who minored in Italian many years ago but was unable at that time to afford a "junior year abroad." Fifteen trips to Italy later, my Italian was only marginally better than it was when I graduated from college. About eight years ago, I decided that, when I retired, I would do a "senior year abroad" and finally develop some real fluency in this beautiful language. In the fall of 2011, I left for eight months in Italy. During the first two months, I studied Italian 3 hours/day, 5 days/week, at the British Institute of Florence. I rented an apartment in a 16c villa built upon a 10c castle about 18 km SE of Firenze in the northern hills of Chianti. In addition to my language studies, I traveled, took cooking classes and two art history courses, drank copious amounts of wine, and generally lived "la bella vita!"
Those eight months were meravigliosi! Ever since, I've continued to blog when traveling abroad, almost always to some part of Italy and usually to another part of Europe that I want to see again or to see for the first time: Turkey, Croatia, Portugal, Corsica, etc. I simply can't get enough of Europa! Come along for the ride, why don't you?