Griffin and Will met by accident — a last-minute plane seat, a roommate’s invitation, an apartment near Villa Rossa with room for one more — and turned it into something that’s lasted years past the semester that started it. What began over shared taste in music and art became weekend trips across Italy, late nights making art together, and a standing Tuesday ritual in Piazza Savonarola that turned into a tradition six friends still hold onto, now bittersweet since losing their friend Isaac. Griffin found a second family in his host parents, Manlio and Vera; Will found the confidence that comes from leaning into the unfamiliar. Back home in New York City, they shared their memories of the semester that changed them.
You met on the Syracuse Florence program. Please tell us about that.
Griffin: It was very serendipitous! On the initial flight to Florence, I was sitting in the middle aisle with my friend and roommate Nick DeSantis when someone rushed on the plane last minute and sat directly next to him. He and Nick started instantly bantering, and that banter led to us meeting our first friend in Florence: Austin Dickieson. Early in the semester Austin hosted some people at his apartment where he was living with five other art students, and Will was one of his roommates. That night Will and I immediately connected over similar music taste, a shared love of making art, and a general instinct that we were meant to become friends.
Soon after that, we began travelling together on weekends, and his entire apartment became my closest friends in Florence. Each night after I finished eating dinner and chatting with my host family, I’d rush over to Will’s apartment to hang out with everyone. We all bonded with each other very quickly, and spent many nights making collaborative drawings, exploring Florence and enjoying each other’s company. After our senior year of college, my friend Dan Janzow and I went to Santa Clara University to visit Will and our other friends from abroad and celebrate their graduation with them.
Since then, we’ve remained close and now both live in New York City, where I’m from! Will has met many of my friends from home and has really ingratiated himself into the community I’ve built here, which has been amazing.
Will: I knew several Santa Clara students who I was going to be living with in an apartment in Florence. What an incredible experience! When we first arrived, my roommate Austin had let me know immediately of a few students he met on his flight over to Italy that he befriended, and how I needed to meet them. During the first week we invited some students over to our apartment including Griffin, and he and I immediately hit it off. Griffin and I were constantly together. He and I in particular were always exploring the city, creating art, and documenting and photographing our experiences.
Do you have any funny/touching stories about adjusting to living in Italy?
Griffin: One of the first days in Florence I went to [the grocery store] Esselunga with some of the friends I’ve mentioned above, and we noticed that they sold packs of exactly two beers. For some reason, that quantity of beer was very amusing to us as we hadn’t ever seen it packaged that way in the U.S. At that moment we came up with the idea of Two Pack Tuesday where we would meet every Tuesday night in Piazza Savonarola, and each consume exactly two beers. It ended up being a really memorable ritual, and each week we would invite different people from SU Florence to join us. We still talk about it today and hope to gather everyone together again one day for another Two Pack outside of Villa Rossa. Tragically, our close friend Isaac Scharbach passed away soon after the semester ended, and this future Two Pack meeting will definitely be dedicated to him.
Will: Two Pack Tuesday! What a silly little tradition that has grown to mean so much! We were so amused by the two-packs at Esselunga that the six of us decided to make it a weekly ritual to gather in the park and discuss the happenings of the week over a pair of beverages and great company. And we’re still in touch! All of us remain great friends to this day, and I see Nick and Griffin almost weekly since we all live in NYC. I even also lived with Dan in Massachusetts for a year after college!
It was so tragic to hear about the passing of our friend Isaac right after the program, and it will be such a special moment when we can all gather in Piazza Savonarola and honor him. Special shoutout to Nick, Griffin, Dan, Austin, and Isaac, who I was lucky enough to share a few “Two-Packs” with. I also had an incredible experience playing soccer through the Syracuse program against other programs in the area. The competition was ripe! And it was fun to gather with everyone in the evenings for some good games. So many memories!
What were your host family situations like?
Griffin: My roommate Nick and I lived with an older couple named Manlio and Vera in a beautiful apartment near Santa Croce. My dad has a friend whose daughter lived with them a few years before during her semester abroad and she recommended that we request them as host parents. I’m beyond grateful that ended up happening, because my experience wouldn’t have been nearly the same without them. They are some of the most lovely and caring people I’ve ever met, and we were all immediately endeared to each other. Apparently, before us they hadn’t hosted male students before and were very surprised when we requested them.
During those four months they really made Nick and I feel as if we had always been members of their family. We developed a shared language to communicate with each other that consisted of our basic Italian, their basic English, and Nick’s absurd hybrid of body movements/dance/exaggerated facial expressions. Each night they cooked us some of the best meals of our lives and lovingly shooed us away to go have fun when we tried to help clean up. We all hugged and cried the very last moment we said goodbye before leaving for the airport to head back home.
Will and I returned to Florence last June to visit for the first time since 2019 and had dinner with Manlio and Vera in their apartment. Reuniting with them was really emotional, and was one of the most wholesome, meaningful nights of my life thus far.
Will: I lived with four SCU students and one UVM art student in a lovely little apartment right near Villa Rossa. We made it a ritual to grocery shop at Esselunga almost every day and quickly got into a rhythm of cooking, commuting to class, etc. I even found a gym that I joined with Austin!
How did your study abroad experience influence your life afterward?
Griffin: I really feel that my semester abroad changed everything for me. Since returning to the U.S. in 2019, I’ve developed a strong passion for travel, and I’m more interested in exploring other countries’ cultures than I ever was before. Having grown up as a picky eater as
well, living with a host family broadened my culinary horizons and changed my dietary patterns for the better. I think about my experience in Florence daily, and it’s remained a very important city to me all these years later. In the future I hope to return to Europe for at least a year, as I know I wouldn’t be content with myself if I didn’t attempt to have another similar experience to my time in Florence. I’m even solo travelling to Warsaw and Krakow for the first time in two weeks, something I definitely wouldn’t have had the confidence to do without my semester abroad.
Will: My experience abroad was maybe the best 4-month stretch of my whole life. And I don’t say that lightly. I did an incredible amount of living and traveling in such a short period of time. And to be completely immersed in another country and culture is something that challenged me and inspired me to get out of my shell in so many ways.
Advice for current students?
Griffin: My main advice is to make the most of every single moment. Before you know it the
semester will be done and you’ll be wishing you were back in Florence! Spend as much time as you physically can just walking around and exploring the city, and as little time as possible in your room on your phone or laptop — there will be time for that when you get back home! During my semester, I wish I had made more of an effort to explore the outskirts of Florence as well, and venture to parts of the city that are less visited by students. Be adventurous and outgoing! Spend time befriending fellow abroad students, locals, and most importantly, your host family.
Will: In life, you are given the opportunity to lean into challenges and discomfort, and I implore any students studying abroad to do exactly that. I wasn’t so sure about where I would go, who I would meet, or really how any of the experience was going to go, but I’m so happy to have tried all of the things I did. When Griffin and I had the opportunity to return to Florence last year, we made an effort to go to all of our favorite places, but we also found so many new ones by just walking around! The world is so big, get out there and look around!