France is a country that gives a lot of vacation time: students generally get at least a week off in the fall, two weeks for Christmas, at least a week for a later “winter break,” and at least a week for Easter–plus, of course, two to three months of summer vacation. Luckily, my study abroad program is super into immersing its student in the French culture, affording us as many opportunities as possible to live with, and like, the French. Heureusement, they’ve applied this philosophy to our vacation time as well! I had the good fortune to travel during my week of winter vacay– I voyaged to the land of my (ditto for like a million other American citizens) ancestors, Italy! A friend and I spent three days in Florence and three days in Rome, indulging in all the Renaissance art, gelato, and ancient ruins that we could stand.
We took a comfortable (and economical!) overnight bus from Marseille to Florence, arriving there bright and early. Despite our tiredness, we carpe diem’ed immediately: we met up with a friend from Barnard who’s currently studying art in Florence. She gave us a wonderful tour of the city, and took us for an American-style brunch at an adorable restaurant (don’t worry–we definitely took advantage of the Italian cuisine immediately after).
 

 We started our sight seeing immediately after that: our first stop was Palazzo Vecchio, the past and present town hall of Florence, once occupied by the powerful Medici family. We then headed right next door to the Uffizi gallery, which has a huge collection of Italian art, including The Birth of Venus, by Botticelli.