Hello!

Welcome to the Italy Community, it's a good thing to plan your future travel to Italy since now. are you going to attend an University course?  Why Florence? Have you already travelled there?

  Hi Michael and welcome.  I wish I was there too!  There are several people on the forum in or around Florence so if you have questions ask away.  Good luck.

 Hello and welcome, Michael. Florence is a wonderful city. Best wishes.

Welcome to the forum. Hopefully 2011 will come around quickly for you.

I'll be taking courses at Florence University of the Arts, mostly Italian and various photography courses (fashion, photojournalism, etc.).  The program I'm in will have me living in an apartment thats about 15-20 minutes away from the campus. The program I'm using has options in Florence, Rome, Milan and Sicily.  Florence and Rome had the best courses for my major, and I decided on Florence because I figured it'd be a little smaller and slightly less touristy compared to big Rome. I will of course visit the other cities on weekends and such. Also, I've never been to Italy before!  I'm in love with the country though as its a big part of where my family's heritage is.  (half German, half Italian) I can't wait to be there, it's going to be the most interesting 15 weeks of my life I'm sure.

 Florence is an excellent choice, although you may find that it is a bit more crowded than you anticipate. Have a great time and learn a lot!

There is no better town where to learn art in Italy than Florence, the place where Renaissance was born and developed! There are so many museums and monument where you can enrich your culture! I also suggest to visit Siena (just 1:30 minutes from Florence). In Florence there are also Universities for Fashion studies. I'm not sure if you are going to attend DAMS (which is also based in Bologna) ...so you are going to live in Florence, a wonderful town, cosmopolitan atmosphere, artistic resources... I strongly wish I was there !!!