My name is Clarence Pavlovic. I am a first-generation college student attending the Mount. When I first heard of the opportunity to study abroad in Florence, Italy, I was scared and nervous about whether I should take it. I have never traveled to Europe or flown alone. This was new to me, and I went in almost blind the first semester of my fourth year of attending university.

But now, after spending a semester and looking back at it all. I can say that it was all worth it, and I was worried about nothing. The company that Mount St. Mary’s is partnered with is AIFS. They do an awesome job when it comes to almost everything and make your semester in Florence as best as it can possibly be.

From the moment I arrived at the airport in Florence, AIFS staff were right there to help guide me the whole time, making sure that I was not lost and that I knew where to go. From the airport, I took a taxi with other students to the Hotel NH Firenze. It was there that I met my two roommates, Nolan and Dan whom I would share an apartment with the whole semester. The hotel is amazing, and the breakfast was just as great.

The next day is when things took off. After breakfast, we gathered in a large room where we had a briefing on the rules and things to know during our time in Italy. It was all very straightforward and easy to follow. After that, Nolan, Dan and I gathered our luggage, and we took a taxi, provided by AIFS, to our apartment.

Located on the south side of the Arno River on the street Via Dei Serragli, our apartment had an old-world charm to it with high ceilings and frescos on our bedroom ceilings, a stone floor, solid concrete walls and a good view of the street below us. After setting our stuff down, AIFS staff took our entire class on a tour around Florence, showing us a good library, a bookstore for our textbooks and the office of a doctor who speaks English, just in case any of us needed medical attention. The Mount chaperone, Professor of Political Science Michael Towle, Ph.D., and the AIFS staff did an amazing job in making every single one of us comfortable in our first three days in Florence.

In just our third day there, AIFS took us to a lot of the famous locations in Florence, including the Duomo, Santa Croce, Piazza del Signoria, Piazza della Repubblica and Palazzo Strozzi. There is a lot to do and a lot to see in just the first few days, and you are never bored the entire time.

The rest of my first week was smooth. The classroom was less than a 10-minute walk from our apartment. Even better, the Palazzo Pitti museum complex was only a three= minute walk from the school building. The teachers and the tour guides were all amazing, and the AIFS staff continued to show how dedicated they were to make us as comfortable as possible and to answer all of our questions.

Now I have a question for you all reading this: would you consider studying abroad in Florence?