Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italy

I recently moved to Venice, Italy at the beginning of September for exchange. Since moving here, I have completely fallen in love with the city and everything to do with it.

Academic life

I have used free electives for my exchange. I am currently taking Italian language classes which I would highly recommend to anyone moving to a non-English speaking country. My Professoressa is incredible. She has taught us so much in such a short time and it is such a joy being able to practice what I am learning in my day-to-day life. On top of this I took Politics and Environmental Sustainability, Venetian Art and Archeology, and History of Venice.

The university facilities are scattered all across the island. So far, I have had classes in a cinema and a nunnery. I have also had Venetian Art and Archeology excursions to a church and an art museum. There is a large economics campus on the island which a lot of students have classes. This campus is beautiful, with a large garden courtyard and a bar on the water with amazing views of the sunset. The teaching style has similarities to Australian classes, but I would say generally has less student participation. In two of my classes, History of Venice and Politics and Environmental Sustainability, the teacher sat up the front with a PowerPoint and talked, with minimal student activities and interaction. However, in my Venetian Art and Archelogy as well as my Italian classes the teacher gets us involved in the lessons, and as I said, even takes us on excursions.

My week is divided into 2-3 classes a week for each subject. These range from 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours long. I am not quite sure whether you would call them lectures or tutorials because depending on the subject, your range of participation in the class differs. All the students here call them classes, rather than lectures or tutorials anyway.

When you are not in class you can go to the numerous libraries that the university offers. These are all beautiful and more often than not, right on the waterfront.

Life in Venice

There are no cars in Venice, so you spend most of your days walking around the city getting from class to class, or bar to bar if you’re meeting friends. The fact that there are no cars forces you to explore the city, which in Venice you must do! Venice is a city of hidden gems. You never know what you are going to find around every corner you turn or at the end of every little alleyway. I have walked around the island more times than I can count, and I am still discovering new restaurants, bars and gardens hidden in the maze.

Living on an island has turned out to be more fun than I could have imagined. It feels like we are in a little bubble. With all our friends within a 30-minute walk of each other, and everywhere we want to go and meet within walking distance you are constantly running into people and hanging out with friends spontaneously.

However, if you do ever get a bit tired of the bubble there are endless amounts of trains and flights you can catch from Venice that take you almost anywhere in the world. I have been overwhelmed with options of places to visit for absolutely nothing. So far, I have travelled to Verona for a weekend, Treviso in Northern Italy, the wine regions in the Veneto, Munich for Oktoberfest, Sicily for a week, Florence for a night and I already have so many more trips coming up. You can get direct trains in between countries with the most amazing scenery or flights for as little as 30 euro return to almost anywhere in Italy. Having the opportunity to travel this much, I am able to experience the most incredible places, meet new people and don’t even get me started on the food.

It is no mystery that Italian food is some of the best in the world. My evenings are spent eating pasta and pizza with friends over an Aperol spritz and soaking in the beautiful city.

Anyway, it is safe to say I am loving my exchange so far and I cannot wait to experience more of it.

Tara Watson
Bachelor of Management
Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italy
Global Exchange Scholarship

For more information about the UTS Global Exchange program please visit: www.uts.edu.au/thinkglobal