I studied for one month in Florence in college. It was my first time to Europe and I remember the giddy emotions I had before embarking. I just kept thinking, “This is real. There is a place across the world where I will land in a plane tomorrow and it is real! It’s not just in books or on websites! I will be right in the middle of those things I’ve seen in pictures.” Indeed it was an incredibly formative summer and I think time abroad should be a near-requirement for all college students. We didn’t stay long there with my parents but I did at least want them to see the things that meant so much to me that summer: our apartment, where we would sketch with our class, where we got gelato, where we had the best blueberry steak in the world, even down to the exact same Simon and Garfunkel cover band that played in the piazza.