I aspired to be a fine artist for many years of my life, never knowing if I’d ever get the opportunity to actually fulfil that vision let alone travel outside my beloved Africa. Italy however had always been a mystery to me.

How can you explain something you deeply love to someone else, in a way that will give them a true understanding? Often times, whether it’s your favorite song, the best spot to sit and read a book, or the best view for a sunset, these intangible things are hard to describe. It is even more frustrating because these intangibles are, usually, more meaningful than the tangibles. When given the opportunity to describe my experiences and impression of Florence after four months of studying abroad, I was intimidated. I find it hard enough to describe my weekend to a friend, let alone my entire study abroad experience to strangers.

The experience of living in Firenze makes you feel alive and fulfilled like no other city does. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a Hungarian psychologist who spent most of his career conducting research about “optimal experiences.” The ideas he described in his 1990 book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience help to explain the fulfillment that you may experience in Firenze. 

One Ordinary College Student, Ninety Extraordinary Days

Ciao! If you're hoping to discover what it's like to study abroad in Florence, you've come to the right place, my friend. And here’s the thing, now is the PERFECT time in your life to see the world. AEF welcomes you to join them and experience Florence. Why watch it on TV and read about it in books when you can see it in person?

Allow me to take you on a journey...

Kitija Ernstsone is from Latvia and is a musician. In her country, she studied piano and saxophone, under classical training. When it was time to decide which direction of studies to pursue, she felt she had to cultivate her growing passion for jazz. She also wanted to enrich her experience with a period of study abroad, and began to look around. And so, in 2016 she arrived at AEF. "The course offering at AEF rich and interesting, and the opportunity to come to Florence fascinated me, so I made my decision.