Small Rye Big World: Travel Transparency

The 14-year-old version of myself used to lay in bed at night lost in a stream of Jay Alvarez skydiving over Bali and Indy Blue hair-flipping in front of a cliff in Iceland. I would devour travel blogs and try to get a grip on how one could afford to be in all of these countries. With no “how-to” guideline available, I came to the conclusion they were just privileged with daddy’s trust fund or the lucky ones who made money early. 

Then I became the one who was in a new country every weekend, providing the constant stream of aesthetic skylines of Paris and Switzerland alike, and I can assure you I have no trust fund or “hit it big” early in life. 

While I am nowhere near being an influencer, I still have raised lots of questions from people back home from my travels. What am I doing? Do I live in Europe now? How long am I staying? How have I afforded to pull all of this off? How have I planned all these trips? Is someone providing and planning these trips for us? 

These questions have taken me back to the 14-year-old version of myself who was plagued with the travel bug and had no idea how to do it. 

I have somehow figured this out. But in full transparency, it is not anywhere near as seamless as it seems. 

Of course, the ugly, draining, stressful parts of traveling aren’t seen or barely talked about. Truthfully, when you reflect on a trip, you don’t remember the bad. But these are the parts of traveling that I wish I knew in advance. At this point, my traveling partners and I have kneaded out the kinks and have a system down. For those of you with a case of the 14-year-old Riley, I am going to try to help you have no kinks.

1) What am I doing? 

I am currently studying abroad in Florence, Italy. Many universities in the United States have satellite campuses in Europe or pair with schools in Europe to do direct exchanges, so I recommend approaching your university’s study abroad office. It is never too early to speak to study abroad advisors because they will outline your options for you. For my roommate and I, we had the option of doing an exchange or going through an outside company called International Studies Abroad (ISA). 

My roommate and I both agree that we would recommend ISA one thousand times. This company found housing for us, paired us with two roommates that we are compatible with, have solved any housing issue for us quickly, and have managed all communication between us and the school. We pay ISA and ISA pays our tuition to our school, Florence University of the Arts (FUA). ISA helped us register for all of our courses at FUA. They took us to dinner the first night we arrived to help us meet all the other people in our program. In approaching the time for us to leave, ISA scheduled a COVID test for us to ensure it would follow the flight and border regulations. They have served as our helpline the entire time we have been here and it has made everything so easy. 

If we had chosen to do an exchange, we would have lived with a host family. I am sure this would have been an amazing full-exposure culture dive. I believe the experience would have been different from mine in many ways, so it is truly what you are looking for. ISA is a bit more expensive than a host family. Though, I will say, in doing ISA it has been easy to meet and make friends that are studying abroad as well. These students are not just from the United States, there are people I have met from London, Guatemala, Slovenia, etc. I will say I haven’t met anyone in an exchange. 

2. How have we been traveling every weekend?

First, I want to note that our school has not planned our weekend trips. All of our traveling (except for one weekend excursion to Rome, provided by ISA) has been planned by us. My roommate and I did not plan any trip in advance besides the first weekend we arrived. We knew we would meet people and it is definitely cheaper to travel as a group, as far as hotel and taxi fares go. Once we arrived here, we discussed with our two other roommates and new friends where we wanted to go and tried to plan in advance as much as possible. 

Our home base is Florence, Italy. We knew we wanted to travel within Italy to other cities like Venice, Milan, Lake Como, Positano, etc. Other countries were high on our list as well, like France, Switzerland, and England. We came into this experience with the mindset that we wanted to see as much as possible, which meant spending money and traveling every weekend. There are two options for traveling, as renting a car is completely ruled out because of the road systems being so different. The train and flying are our forms of transportation. 

Throughout Europe, there is a train system that runs just about anywhere. Prior to living here, however, I was under the impression that the train could zip us to other countries with ease. While it can take you to other countries, it is nowhere near as fast as one may imagine. For example, taking the train from Florence to Monaco (which is relatively close to Florence, barely touching Italy’s west border) would take around 8 hours. When you can only travel on the weekends, 8 hours would extremely limit the time you could spend in the country, so it was just not realistic. Also, it is important to note that if you don’t have an Eurail pass (which I highly recommend for those planning to take the train), a train ticket can cost the same price as a flight. 

There is an airport in Florence, which we have preferred to use when traveling anywhere outside of Italy. Flying to other countries is similar to flying to other states time-wise, but there are many guidelines you have to check into when country-hopping (I will get into that portion later...).There are cheap flight options around Europe. Unfortunately, these flights oftentimes aren’t directly from Florence to your final destination, but they are manageable. For example, a flight from Bologna, Italy (about an hour train ride from Florence) to Copenhagen, Denmark is 9 euros. The price of the train from Florence to Bologna is about 10 euro one way, so this is a deal. 

3. What does an average travel day look like? 

While this 30 euro trip to Denmark seems worth it, you have to consider how long of a travel day this is and if it will drain you or not. In all honesty, in some cases, I would rather spend more money for the ease of a direct flight. An exhausting travel day can take everything out of you, leaving you drained for one of the two days you get to spend in your dream destination, which is just not worth it to me. 

If one were to choose this 30 euro trip to Denmark, this is what the day would consist of: You don’t have a car, so you would walk 30 minutes from your apartment to the train station. Keep in mind, you will be carrying your luggage, so a backpack truly is your only option. Then, you have to catch your train. You ride the train for about an hour. 

If you’re lucky, your train will have a stop at the airport in Bologna. If not, you will then walk from the train station to the airport. Next, you go through all the steps of the airport, from check-in to security to the gate. 

Then you fly into Denmark. It is important to note that the airports are often not in the area you are staying in or hoping to explore. Think about it, the airports in New York are not in the heart of the city. Therefore, you either hop on a train in the airport and take it to your final destination, or pay for a taxi. 

At the end of this experience, it can often add up to the same price as just buying a direct flight out of Florence, which I would recommend. If you watch flights and book them far enough in advance, they can be anywhere between 100-200 euros, which is not bad. To fly out of Florence, the airport is too far away to walk to, so you would take a taxi to the airport, get on your flight, and a taxi or train from the airport to your final destination. 

A train is always the cheaper option from the airport to your final destination. However, it can be very time-consuming and difficult to figure out. Think about the first time attempting to navigate the subway in New York. It is difficult to figure out which subway to get on, which direction it is going, and where to get off. Adding on the language barrier of another country definitely takes some getting used to. Luckily, most of the time you can put your final destination in Apple or Google maps and it will outline the train stops for you, but not which train to get on so make sure to double-check with an employee at the train station to ensure you’re going the right way! We made the mistake of not double-checking in Milan and almost missed our bus tour to Lake Como…

4. How do I afford all of this? 

Budgeting is a huge factor in being here. We have no income for the three months that we live here. I was prepared to be spending a bunch of money here, but that doesn’t change how much it hurts watching your bank account fall. 

We remind ourselves daily that this is the cheapest we will ever get to do something like this. What other time in our life would we get to live in Europe for three months, without having to pay bills for the life we left in the US? What other time in our life will we have a home base in Italy? Any other time we will come back to Europe, it is a much more expensive flight across the Atlantic. We had to take advantage of this opportunity. 

Every weekend trip I have paid for myself. Honestly, in preparation for this trip, I worked my ass off this summer. I knew it would be worth it. But, if you are planning on doing something like this, I recommend saving a ton of money. There is no worse feeling than not being able to do something you want to do here because of money. Live it up. 

5. What do I recommend? 

Despite the stress of figuring all of this out, long travel days, and a drained bank account, I have never felt more fulfilled than being here. This experience has truly changed my life and I would recommend it to anyone. 

I recommend traveling every weekend you’re here. Yes, it will be draining. Like I said before, this is the only time you will get to do something like this for this cheap or easy, so make the most of it. I was surprised when coming here how many students at my school don’t travel and stay in Florence and go out every weekend. While this is fun sometimes, we can go to bars at home (or on a weekday, if you’re into that). Many students spend all their money going out and can’t afford a weekend trip. To me, it doesn’t seem worth it. 

I cannot stress enough how highly I recommend getting an Eurail pass. The company offers multi-country and country-specific passes, based on how many travel days you are planning to take a month. I believe I bought an 8-day travel pass (Friday and Sunday of the four weekends of the month) for 200 euro. While it seems like a lot upfront, you would spend 200 euro in one weekend without a pass. It is a must. 

Never take a suitcase on your weekend trips, unless you have a direct flight and are taking a taxi to the airport and from your destination. I recommend having a hefty travel backpack before coming here, like a North Face. 

I recommend having an idea of the places you want to go ahead of time. Every single place I have been I would recommend to anyone, besides Pisa. I can list them below. In having an idea, it is easier to plan once you get here with the people you are traveling with as far in advance as you can. 

Places I recommend: Positano, Rome, Milan, Lake Como, Venice, Paris (I cannot put enough emphasis on this), London, and Switzerland. I would take a day trip to Siena, Arezzo, Monteriggioni, San Gimignano, and Bologna. 

I hope this made traveling a bit more transparent. If you have any questions, never hesitate to reach out. Happy traveling!