Al Dente Diary 🇮🇹

June 30th 2026

Oh my goodness I am so exhausted yet simultaneously filled with such adrenaline! What a beautiful place.

Today was the first official day of the program so we toured our university and had a brief orientation regarding the upcoming semester.

I have received so many comments about how European I look, shoutout to my amazing family for my amazing genes and ability to communicate full sentences in only facial expressions and hand gestures. 🤌🏻

The walk to campus is about 20 minutes, I am adamant to use those damn electric scooters but I will have a class starting at 8:45 am and foresee my lack of time management skills drastically impacting that decision in my future.

The route to campus is beautiful though, we walk right past the river!

Because our orientation was several hours we were able to take a lunch break in between to enjoy some more amazing food!

Even if we order food, they constantly bring us snacks to munch on like chips or crackers, and today they served us olives! By the end of our meal there were at least four empty ramekins filled with olive pits, I must have eaten at least 20. They were delicious and no one else was appreciating how chunky and buttery they were so I had them all to myself!

Classes start tomorrow!