Around this time a year ago, I was starting to pack and get ready for the greatest adventure I have had yet. I was about to move 4,700 miles from home by myself for three months. I moved to Florence, Italy to work as a Tour Promoter for Smart Trip.
Here is how I found this awesome gig.
I knew I needed an internship the summer between my junior and senior years. However, because of the pandemic, I had not yet experienced my dream of studying abroad in college. So I thought, why not find an internship in Europe?
I searched through many programs and ended up applying and getting this internship in Italy where the program would match me to a job based on my interests in Milan or Rome. Since I had never been to Italy, I reached out to a family friend who moved there after she graduated from UNC a few years ago. I told her about the program and asked for advice on which country I should choose.
She had a few questions and once she realized that I was basically going to be paying tuition to do an internship, she essentially said "Woah woah woah, do not do that. If you want a fun experience and to make some money you should apply to work for my company this summer."
I was intrigued. I responded, "What do you do?"
And she said "I’m the manager of a travel company and we hire college kids to promote and lead our trips all over Italy and Europe. And you don’t need any experience."
Sounds too good to be true, right? Nope. It gets even better.
She explained to me that it is based in Florence and that it is a sales job (commission based). Your sales will determine the trips you get to lead, and the trips you lead are of no cost to you (travel, stay, and food are provided). Oh, and not to mention housing while in Florence is also provided?!
I immediately emailed the email provided on their website to start applying and the rest was history.
The moral of the story is that I moved to Florence for three months and only had to pay for my plane tickets, the food I ate when I was not traveling, and my Zara addiction. Can you blame me? The Zara was a nine-minute walk from our apartment.
I miss Florence every day, but what I miss more are the people that I met there. I worked and lived with some of the most adventurous, kind-hearted, and crazy people I have ever met. They taught me the importance of getting out of my comfort zone and embracing it.
I hope everyone gets the chance to have their abroad era while in college or soon after, especially after knowing now that there are some affordable ways of doing so.
Here is the Smart Trip link for those who might be interested: https://www.smarttrip.it/en
And please ask me about it, I love talking about my time in Italy.
Sincerely,
The annoying girl who went abroad and let it become her biggest personality trait.
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