Università di Bologna

get a carta verde for train travel, its so worth it at 30euro for 15% discounts everytime. Come out early to find acommodation. Watch your bags when travelling on the bus or else it's contents will make somebody very happy! Bring lots of strong moskito repellent!

Flights!! Although you can claim them back from your LEA, you do have to make the initial payment yourself first and the LEA's are not very prompt about recrediting your account. Also beware at the end of the year of excess baggage charges - they can escalate... Last Tip: Go to IKEA - it is in Casalecchio and a free bus runs from Piazza dei Martiri (I think that's the name) but do go it's great for cheap house stuff and Euromercato is just next door with lots of cheap food.

The language course offered by the ERASMUS programme left a lot to be desired academically but was a good opportunity to meet the other foreign students out there. In my first term I lived entirely with Italians and it was eventually a very alienating experience. You have to remember that no matter how fantastic your language skills are you just don't have the cultural background to be able to blend in completely- think about how many conversations you have at uni about your common experiences (ie. South Park, Bag Puss) and imagine a group of people taliking about the same sort of things but you just don't get it and that is basically the key to the reason why one can never really go native!!