My name is Maria Pastor Carrasco, I am 21 years old, I was born and live in Elche (Alicante, Spain) and I am a student of tourism. I did a two-year course in travel and event management and am currently doing my internship at Made Of Tuscany, in Florence.
The fact of being able to live a few months in another country, meeting new people, visiting monuments, entering museums, tasting the typical dishes of the city where you are, knowing the surrounding cities or villages, practicing the language spoken in your city choice… From my point of view, it is something that will make you grow as a person and will help you to value everything you have and what you lack.
As for my experience in the Made Of Tuscany company, I started on May 15th and I will finish my internship in mid-July. From the beginning, both Susanna (owner of the company) and Angela (assistant who works in the office with Susanna) integrated me very well into the agency. So far I have learned a lot from both of them, both from his way of working and from the history of the city. Also, they always have a nice face and a smile to explain everything I have to do and they make a great effort to understand my Italian, which is not perfect at the moment, but I keep practicing.
looking for information for guided tours that customers have requested, helping in the office in daily activities, writing about experiences and stories in Florence...
As for the language, I had studied Italian for two years before coming to Florence, because it seems to me a very beautiful language and I wanted to know it better. Not speaking the language perfectly is not a problem, at least in this city.
All the Florentines I met during my stay in this city made an effort to try to understand me and, of course, to help me improve my language. If you have the opportunity to choose the city where to practice Erasmus, I definitely recommend Florence. I have had the opportunity to choose the country and the city where to live this experience and I have always had Florence as my first choice. Before selecting it as my final destination, I searched for information about the city, saw many photos, many videos ... But on my first day in the city, when I arrived downtown and met the impressive Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, I realized that this city would be it was incredible at every step. Looking at the city in the photo you can get an idea that it is one of the most beautiful cities in Tuscany, I would even say in all of Italy.
But when you arrive here and see all the monuments that surround this city, you realize that it exceeds all the expectations you had of it. Also, of course, that in it you can get to know live works of art recognized around the world and that, it is lucky to see for yourself. I could mention hundreds of works found in this city that you cannot miss but, of course, it is essential to see Michelangelo's David found in the Accademia Gallery and two of Botticelli's most famous works, such as "La Primavera" and "The birth of Venus", which can be found in the Uffizi gallery.
Here is a tour that will give you the opportunity to see these beautiful works of art: https://www.madeoftuscany.it/florence-day-tour/
In short, my Erasmus stay was excellent and I think I could not have chosen a better city than this one because it is an open-air art museum that fascinates everyone. How could I not have been more fortunate to find this fantastic company where I can do my internship in such a pleasant and fluid way.
