What you should do before going to Italy

Hello!

This past summer I decided that I was fed up with Spain and I wanted to go on an adventure: so I went to Florence to work. I didn't know any Italian, but being as I'm Spanish, it couldn't be that difficult, right?

It all started one day at university when the idea of travelling again came back to me. I spent 9 months during Erasmus in Swansea (Wales) and one month in Lille (France), and the truth is that I couldn't stand the idea of ​​staying in Madrid (for those of you who don't know Madrid, it is ridiculously hot and the capital is completely deserted in the summer). So I set out to find the next city that I would get to know.

Italy has always been a country that has fascinated me. During school, we went on a school trip to visit several Italian cities: Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome... But the truth is that with me and my classmate all being teenagers, we barely paid any attention to the Italian culture. It didn't take me any time to convince myself: I would go to Italy. But without knowing any Italian... where could I go?

I started searching on Google for "Spanish companies in Italy", so that, with a little bit of luck, they would not fixate on the fact that I had no idea of ​​the Italian language. I wrote an email looking for a job of any kind and I sent it, along with my resume, to all the companies I found, with the luck that one answered me: I would be going to do an internship with AC Hotels by Marriott in Florence. From there, everything moved on very quickly, I needed an official confirmation, a learning agreement, insurance, etc. But my university helped me a lot and everything was solved.

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Here, I will explain to you the steps I took before leaving:

Is the Italian language easy?

The first thing I did when it was confirmed that I would be going to Italy was to look for language courses. I found an academy, the Academia Paraninfo, where they taught Italian in Madrid at a reasonable price, with timings that fitted in with my university schedule. And they really treated me very well. The teacher's name was Francesca (is there a more Italian name than that?), and she was a student who was in Madrid to learn a little Spanish. As a teacher, she was very good, and in just three months she got me to the point where I was able to speak some broken Italian.

And with this, I want to confirm that yes, Italian is made for Spanish people. But saying that, you have to put in the time and effort. The grammatical structures are very similar to Spanish and I would say that almost 50% of the vocabulary is the same but with a different pronunciation. So just by knowing Spanish, you are halfway there. So yes, if you are looking to learn a language in 3-6 months, I 100% recommend Italian.

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Finding accommodation from Spain

The ideal thing to do would be to travel to the destination city to be able to see the apartments to avoid being ripped off, but as a lot of us know this is quite difficult. But don't worry, as there are lots of options for finding accommodation from your home country.

• One of them is this very same social media site, Erasmusu. Here, thousands of ads are uploaded daily where people are offering flats or searching for flatmates. I know that lots of people that have found their flat through this website and they are very happy with them.
• If not, there is another very reliable website called Spotahome. Their philosophy is that there are people who will go and visit the house for you and make sure that everything is like it is in the photos and thus avoid scams. All the information is very well organised and there will always be someone willing to help you online. The only problem is that it is still an agency and, therefore, they ask you to pay a months rent if you reserve the flat through them as a fee.
• Finally, on Facebook, you will always find thousands of groups for looking for, selling or renting flats and apartments for cities all over the world

Transport

This is paramount. Wherever you go, try to buy your tickets in advance, especially for plane tickets... I went to Italy in summer and to be honest I had to give myself more time there than I needed, just to save a little bit of money.

There is a website that compares flights that is really good and which I always use. It is called Skyscanner. The only piece of advice that I would give you, is that after finding which company is the cheapest or which combination of flights is best for you, you go directly to the airline website to avoid hidden costs and higher prices due to extra fees.

On the other hand, in Italy they use the train a lot. They have high-speed trains (you can do some more research on the Italotreno website), which cover long distances in a very short amount of time and connect the big cities, for example Rome to Venice. Or if you are looking for a more regional train, then I recommend Trenitalia, for shorter journeys.

Finally, buses in Italy aren't very expensive. The bus company Flixbus also offers lots of different combinations that take you to and from almost every major city in Italy. Check it out because it is worth it and is cheaper than the other ones!

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With all of this advice, I don't have any doubt that everything will work out well for you! Good luck!

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