My vote is Florence.

No...wait...my vote is for Rome.

Well...now wait...Florence.

I'd actually suggest speaking to others who have actually studied in Florence and Rome and getting their opinion.
Visiting a country as a tourist is a completely different experience from living there...which is a totally different experience from living there as a student. Trust me...

Which city offers more affordable meals? Is Florence a more expensive place to live in than Rome?
Which city offers more affordable accommodations?
Which university has the best programs and the better lecturers?

You know...student kind of questions.

Thanks for all of the replies, once again!

Guy, you mentioned how the gay-scene in Florence was a little more accessible/welcoming than in Rome? How so...? This is really important for me, not because I'm going to Italy searching for love, but because I would like to be in a place where I will have lots of opportunities to bond with persons like myself....!

Perhaps this new idea will change some of your minds about your opinions:

If I choose to go to Rome, I spend three weeks in Florence at language school. Following the three weeks, I move to Rome for 12 weeks (with small trips to Venice, Capri, Naples...)

If I choose Florence, I spend three weeks in Siena at language school. After moving to Florence (for 12 weeks) I will make small trips to Venice and Rome.

There are so many pro's for each city it's hard to decide! The Rome option gives me much time in Florence, but what if I find myself in Florence wishing I had chosen it to be the city I was spending 12 weeks in?

I really can adapt to any city, but the most important thing to me is immerging myself into Italian culture as well as being somewhere completely different from here.... (Wyoming, college town population 20,000)

I have time to decide (September) but now is the time to weigh the pro's and con's of the cities....!

S-I don't understand, why would you want to go to Siena for language school, and make trips into Florence? There's really nothing going on there,(Siena) - go to Dante Aligheri Language School in Florence, (considered the best-Elvis Costello even studied there) or Leonardo da Vinci-you'll have a rigorous language work out, but oh so much fun as well.

I don't really get to choose the specifics. There are two seperate programs I could participate in...

The one in Florence- I start with language school in Siena.

The one in Rome- I start with language school in Florence.

So should I give up Rome altogether for 12 weeks in Florence and 3 weeks in Siena? Or have both Florence (3 weeks) and Rome (12 weeks) with the Rome option?

Okay, with those options, I'd go with the latter.

Rome is more Gay friendly, has more diversity, more to do. Florence has some great art but I would prefer Rome for a longer stay.

I'd go with the latter, too, especially since you are likely to get better weather from fall through winter in Roma as opposed to Firenze/Siena.

GirlTravel--I don't think your recommending these language schools will help singitkash very much. He seems to be tied in to what his school is offering him.

singitkash--The bars in Florence are full of a friendly crowd composed of Italians and tourists who are all into chatting and meeting each other. The club I'm thinking of is an easy walk from anywhere in the city, and I'm guessing anyone interested in the gay scene can be found there on the nights they are open. I can also tell you (and this was many years ago) that the steps of the Duomo is a gay pick-up area, and I was the recipient of some attention there :) Of course, this is all based on my experiences alone and is not a scientific study or anything.

The bars in Rome are, understably, a more big city scene with more "attitude." Getting to them was not nearly as easy, and sometimes meant navigating more questionable neighborhoods (or such was my perception). Questionable neighborhoods are a given in a big city like Rome.

All things weighed, my personal choice would be Rome. It's just bigger with more of everything to choose from. But I'm also much older than you. GirlTravel, as I said, makes good points. But my experience tells me that you'll be mainly hanging out with students in your program, so there is a built in social network for you, even in frenetic Rome. So yes, as JAGirl says, I'm waffling (so what? we're weighing pro's and con's after all), but it's your decision, after all!

Oh yeah, the Siena/Florence combo is much less appealing to me than the Florence/Rome combo. And this would give you three whole weeks in Florence, plenty of time to prepare you for the crazier experience of Rome.

Rome is probably my favorite city in Europe. Although Florence has fantastic museuems, each church in Rome is a piece of art. You just can't beat the history, restaurants and buildings (Pantheon, Vatican, etc.) in Rome.

Rome! Rome! Rome!! I did a fall semester in Rome about 10 years ago when I was a junior and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Granted, I am a city person and left a unversity of 10,000 students, so we may not be in the same boat here. But Rome was absolutely amazing. And there were lots of students from small universities and small towns on my program and everyone loved it. Rome is just fantastic. Sure it is a city but it feels like home when you go home to an apartment/dorm/residence every night with your own kitchen and your own things. It isn't like being a tourist.

Don't be intimidated by the size of the city. if your program is anything like mine, you won't be doing much studying and Rome offers so much more to explore than Florence. If you want to stay out til 4am that is fine but if you want to just have a dinner and a gelato and call it a night, you can certainly do that too. Remember you are going to be away for 4 months. You want to go somewhere with tons to see and Rome has it all - ancient, medieval, Renaissance, etc. Whereas Florence is all Renaissance all the time (I'll probably be flogged for saying that but it is a bit heavy on the Renaissance).

The other major benefit (it was to me anyway) is that Rome is not crawling with other American study abroad students. Maybe that appeals to you but if I was going to Rome I didn't want to be surrounded by other Americans speaking English. In Rome I really had a chance to meet Italians and learn to speak Italian. When I visited Florence I definitely got the impression that the American students there did not get the same chance to be as integrated into Italian culture.

Don't worry about getting around in Rome. You'll figure it out quickly. Even though it is a big city, I walked most places or took the bus (the walking was a huge bonus for me since I ate like a pig the whole time and lost weight).

I can't figure out from your message who/what you are looking for but if you are a straight woman or a gay man you won't be disappointed in very attractive Italian men in both cities.

Sally-a couple of points. I think Rome has changed tremendously in the last 10 years, and not for the better, either. For the first time ever, I had a couple of encounters this past year at night that were potentially dangerous-before I would walk all over-now, no. There's just a different temperament-more hard-edged, than before. So I don't know whether S. would really have the kind of experience that you did 10 years ago.

Re Florence, I wasn't around any Americans in my class- at all-nor did I hang with them-nor did I want to. What S will mostly experience is an international crowd comprised of students from all over the world-this will be true in both cities, particularly so in Florence.

Do universities really send their students to dangerous places?

Nessun-to answer your question-there are university programs all over the world, in Central and Latin America, particularly, where qestions have been raised about the safety of students in such programs.

But I didn't say Rome was "a dangerous place" I said I've had encounters in the last year that in all my previous years of going to Rome I had never experienced at night before- in other words, fear for my safety-which is not the same as labeling a city a "dangerous place." But Rome is not the "dolce vita" place of several years ago-, no question in my mind.

Rome Rome Rome!One of my favorite places on Earth!

I've met many wonderful people here and always felt safe.Florence is beautiful,but not as appealing to me.

Really,only you can decide.I can't imagine you could go wrong either way.

Girltravel,

Since obviously many of us and millions of other tourists -- many of them solo young travelers -- go to Rome each year without incident, you'd have to describe your experiences in more detail make the rest of us understand why you think they should deter singitkash from experiencing the wonderful, safer-than-America city the rest of us experienced.

I was robbed in Barcelona twice, but I wouldn't tell a student considering studying there to go to another city based on my isolated experiences. I would just tell them to mind their wallet.

Nessun-go back up and read my post-again. I advised him to take the latter option.

Oh and Nessun-just for the record, since you seem to be extrapolating information from my post for your own argumentative purposes that isn't there-my experiences had nothing to do with pickpocketing.

Girltravel,

I'm not trying to pick a fight with you. You are alluding to negative experiences that other travelers might benefit from knowing more about for their own protection. Is the some reason you can't talk about them directly? There seems to be something about them that has made you believe they couldn't happen in Firenze, so it would be helpful to know what or why.