A US Woman Is Getting Dragged For Penning A Whole Ass Essay About Florence Being A Nightmare

florence italy white privilege new york journalist

A young American woman is being dragged online for writing an entire essay about how much she hated Florence and its people while studying abroad for a semester. The whole thing reeks of white privilege, so let’s laugh at how preposterous it is together.

Stacia Datskovska, a journalism and INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS major at New York University wrote the wild takedown of her time in Italy for Insider, who must really hate her guts for letting this article see the light of day.

In the essay, Datskovska calls Florentine folks “hostile, inconsiderate and preposterous”, said her stay was a “nightmare” and claimed she was “wasting precious time” in Florence. Yes, the same Italian city renowned for its gorgeous historic beauty and blissful landscapes.

Imagine being thrust into the very heart of Tuscany and craving the rat-stench of New York City? My Italian blood is boiling.

“I imagined fun potluck dinners with my roommates, summer flings with people who called me ‘bella,’ gelato that dripped down my fingers in the heat, and natural wine that paired effortlessly with good conversation and better prosciutto,” she wrote.

It feels like she expected Italy to be straight out of a movie and was upset that it wasn’t. Not because she had a bad time or anything but because she missed out on doing things because she had to study. You know, the very thing she fkn went there to do.

So sorry Antonio didn’t throw pebbles at your window and then offer to cook you tajarin al tartufo, babes. Italy really is a bloody nightmare like that.

The most egregious part is that Datskovska admits to purposely wanting to get a rise out of Florentine locals after she felt judged for being a New Yorker.

“I’m not quite sure whom I resented more during my stay in Italy: my American classmates or the locals,” she said.

“I started to protest by presenting myself to the public in a way I knew they’d hate.

“I started wearing American-brand athleisure, Nike Air Max 97s, and oversize hoodies. The Italians rolled their eyes as I passed them on the street.”

As someone who has been to multiple parts of Italy, including Florence, and literally has family who lives there, I have to say that American-brand athleisure is pretty popular over there. There’s no way the Italians would have despised Datskovska for wearing Nikes.

Did she think they’d be pressed like a panini when they saw she wasn’t wearing giant rigatoni on her feet????

“What a horror to be exposed to other cultures, to travel around Europe cheaply, to have to study without working, to have to share with people with other tastes and interests, and on top of that when you return to New York everyone moved forward without waiting for you,” wrote one individual on Twitter.

“I would call this the Emily in Paris Syndrome, that thing where (especially) American girls arriving in Europe think for some obscure reason that they are becoming the new centre of gravity of our lives,” wrote another in Italian.

I get that 2003’s Under The Tuscan Sun glamourised Tuscany in a way that probably isn’t achievable, but the place is absolutely gorgeous. As a tourist paying my way around the place, even I still felt like I was in a very magical spot. Sure, prosciutto didn’t rain from the sky, but I got over it pretty quickly.

I’d hate to imagine what this woman’s opinions will be when she visits a country that isn’t full of white people like herself. I pray I never have to read that article.


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