This past weekend, I traveled to Florence and Pisa in the wonderful country of Italy. Almost four years ago, I traveled to Italy with my high school. Everything on that trip was guided and a lot was set up for us. Well this time around, that was not the case. And that was not so easy. See we Americans like to assume that everyone speaks English. And I personally believe that America does a poor job teaching us other languages because we make that assumption. That is not true, not everyone speaks English and so that made travelling a little bit more difficult.

When we arrived at the airport, that was not too bad. But later on in the day, things became more difficult. We went to a festival with a bunch of different artists and when we got there, we were trying to buy tokens and that was the first struggle we really had. I could not understand the cashier for the life of me.

The next day was even worse trying to get back to the airport. Trying to call a taxi and getting to the bus station was a pain. We were asking random people in the street and who even knows if they speak English. Luckily we found someone who spoke a little bit. It was honestly so difficult and slightly frustrating. I feel bad saying that but I barely know any Italian except for ciao, grazie, and prego. That is not that helpful.

Not having any guidance was a huge challenge especially with no internet access except for some scattered WiFi hot-spots around the city. Somehow we managed to get home safely but next time I go somewhere I am doing more research on the language!