Had the best time! Highly recommend this experience!

Overall, I had a great experience studying abroad in Rome, Italy with CEA! I met a few amazing friends and we had the time of our lives experiencing all Italy had to offer. We spent the majority of our weekdays studying and just hanging out, and then we travelled to new cities almost every weekend (Florence, Lake Como, Venice, Amalfi Coast). The living situation was pretty good. Coming from my freshman year of college, I far preferred my apartment to the small dorms I lived in. However, there was definitely a big difference in each apartment and some were much nicer than others. I had a fairly basic apartment and our biggest complaints were issues with losing hot water, having too small of a kitchen, and having issues with the flooring warping. However, any big issues (such as the hot water) were resolved in a decent amount of time with help from the amazing CEA faculty. But again, this all depends on which apartment you are assigned to. I became really close with my roommates, so that was definitely the best part! I took two classes while I was here (principles of material engineering and the art and archeology course). Both course were relatively similar to courses at my home institution (University of Michigan) in terms of difficulty and workload. We had some issues throughout the semester, but CEA faculty was really good at helping us resolve them. My only complaint would be that there is a difference in teaching styles and leniencies between professors, so you may have to work harder in your class compared to friends/roommates taking other classes. Overall though, the grading was fair and I never felt too overwhelmed by the workload. Coming to Italy for the summer was definitely the experience of a lifetime and I am so sad to leave! I hope to return again in a future summer, or even take part in a CEA study abroad or internship experience at a new location! I would hands down recommend this experience to anyone looking into it!