API: Experience Florence, Italy (Scholarships Available)

My experience studying abroad with API was better then I could have ever imagined! I was set up in an apartment on the Arno River, looking over the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge. Not only was the view amazing, but my roommates and I had live music outside our window almost every night. The school is located near the Duomo and the Central Market, so you are always in the middle of the excitement of Florence. LDM and API also provide a variety of free activities for students every week, including wine tastings, tours in the city, and live shows. Most importantly, there are tons of travel groups for students that make it VERY easy and inexpensive to travel Europe on the weekends! Also, API provides free excursions to cities in Italy like Rome, Venice, Verona, and Cinque Terre!

Stepping off of the bus, onto the cobblestone in Florence was like a fairytale. The city is the most beautiful I have ever seen and the food is second to none. The university also offered great courses including Italian cooking, the impact of the Holocaust on Italian Jews, Italian philosophy, and much more. You could study almost anything here. I would highly recommend this program. We also got to go on excursions to classics like Rome and Venice to name a few.

I purposely chose an abroad program that would allow me to focus on traveling and experience Europe. Lorenzo de Medici had a relatively easy academic program with classes ranging from 3 to 4 days per week. This allowed me plenty of time to explore both inside the city and beyond while also providing a basic academic challenge that introduced me to Italian life.

API staffs were the best! They were always there when you need them, no matter how much trouble you got yourself in, they always helped you with a warm smile on their faces. The trips are the best, they left you enough time do your own stuffs. I also traveled to many other European countries and cities while I studies abroad in Florence, but no where can compare with it, It is small but it has everything you need! The best food, the richest Renaissance history, etc. I would totally do it again!

Traveling abroad to Florence, Italy with API was the experience of a lifetime. I attended Lorenzo De' Medici where I took classes on Monday, Wednesdays, and Thursday. This gave me a lot of time to travel around the city and become very familiar with it. My apartment was in an amazing location. I was on Via San Gallo, about a 5 minute walk from the Duomo, and a block away from the vibrant San Lorenzo market, as well as a close walk to the other LDM buildings. I lived with five other API students, who have become some of my best friends. My apartment building also housed many other API students so I was able to meet so many friends that way. The size of the city is perfect, there is so much to do, yet you can walk everywhere. The city has so much to offerer and is unbelievably beautiful (especially as the weather warms up).
API also has so much to offer. Within the study abroad package there were four amazing excursions to Rome, Venice, Lucca and Tuscany. They were amazing trips and were a great time to meet other API students.
I would highly recommend API to anyone. Traveling to Florence with API was the best experience to date, and I think that everyone should go abroad.

I loved my experience with API in Florence, Italy. My apartment had a good location; close to Mercato Centrale, the Duomo, and several of the LdM academic buildings. I shared an apartment with 4 other API females. The only downside of our living arrangement was that we were the only API students in the building. Other API apartments had more than one apartment per building with students within the program. However, we had nice Italian neighbors who we did not see to often beside leaving and entering the breezeway of the building. We had a few mechanical problems with some kitchen appliances, but API was helpful and quick about having them be fixed.
My daily schedule varied from day to day. I only had classes Monday through Wednesday. LdM did not hold classes on Fridays. My classes were not always in the same building, usually a 3-4 minuet walk to my next class. I enjoyed this time in between classes because it allowed me time to casually walk around the city.
I walked every where! I found the public bus schedule within the city to be very confusing. Unless I was going to Fiesole, which overlooks the city of Florence, I never bothered with taking transportation while in Florence.
I had studied Italian before I arrived and while enrolled in LdM, I continued to take it. I was not fluent in the language, but knew enough to get by. The Italians appreciate the effort! Florence is a popular abroad destination and many of the shops, cafes, and restaurant staff can speak English. However, it more fun to try and speak as much of their language as you can!

I had a wonderful experience studying abroad through API at Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, Italy. API provided me with a trip of a lifetime. They did a great job at engaging the students with the Italian culture by providing us with many cultural excursions and activities. The staff were extremely friendly, and always available whenever you needed them. I enjoyed the class I took at LDM and my professor was very knowledgeable. All of the students are located in apartments within the city, and within walking distance to classes. API did a great job at providing me with an amazing memory that I will always think about. I would love to do it again, and I definitely recommended API to any student who is thinking about studying abroad.

API Florence is a fantastic program in so many ways. Everyone lives in apartments in the center of town with other students in the program. I lived right next to Piazza del Duomo (amazing views, let me tell you!). All of the class buildings were centrally located too. All of my non-language classes took us out into the city at least once. In one class, we went out everyday to look at what we had been talking about.

Some of my favorite perks of this program over other were the four day/weekend trips with the program (we did Rome, Venice during Carnevale, Siena, Perugia and Lucca) and the city museum pass. It saved me a lot of money and I could go to the Uffizi or the Boboli Gardens whenever I wanted, no wait, no money, just grab a ticket and head in. The program staff even helped me contact the landlord when a roof tile came loose and we got a small leak during a rainstorm.