The U.S. study-abroad programs I know in Florence do their best to protect their students from culture shock. But take away all risk and challenge from a study-abroad experience and you effectively remove any chance for a real intercultural exchange. Opt for 100 percent security and you kill what living and studying abroad should be about.

No, no don’t eat the crayon! On a good day, an English lesson can be child's play.

I can still see Oakland Athletic Joe Rudy stretching impossibly in Game 2 of the 1972 World Series.

Curiosity, I learned gradually, was part of my essential makeup.

These days there are no more lazy bus rides or mid-morning interviews or Roman lunches.

Some would argue that Florence is the hottest calcio piazza on the peninsula.

You hear Arabic, Serbo-Croat, and Chinese spoken around the piazza, and most shops are Chinese-owned.

My first crush was on my fifth-grade teacher, Mr. Skay.

I'd like to propose we spread the word that cigarettes are for losers.

Typically, social drop-outs, the unemployed, immigrants and gypsies, get the “loro” label. The word is pronounced condescendingly to underline the deep difference between the them and the us, those on the margins and honest well to-do citizens.