Hello! My name is Raquel, I am 25 years old and I did my Erasmus Traineeship in Medicine in Pavia, from September to December 2018.

Pavia is a small and easily walkable city in the north of Italy, very close to Milan, and is famous for having one of the oldest universities in Italy and because of that, the city has a lot of young people. The university itself is beautiful. The different faculties are scattered around town, but they are very close to each other, and all the buildings have courtyards where you can relax between classes. Apart from the university, the city has a lot of history and the streets are all cobblestone, which actually gives Pavia an extra charm.For me Pavia was the perfect city for my Erasmus experience, because it allowed me not only to meet people from all over the world and learn about different cultures and traditions, but also because I got to learn and practice a lot during the 4 months I was there. I was in my last year of Medicine at the time and I did hospital rotations in Surgery, Pediatrics and Obstetrics. All the staff I encountered was very welcoming and despite not knowing Italian very well in the beginning, over time I was able to speak the language better, which helped immensely and made the whole experience even more valuable. Although I didn’t have classes at the university itself and my academic experience was solely at the hospital, the international students who were studying Medicine in earlier years seemed to enjoy the classes a lot.

I had a wonderful time in Pavia during the four months I was there, and I highly recommend the city for anyone who is looking for a small yet lively place to live their Erasmus. I made a lot of friends, had fun, travelled and gained a lot of experience that will be most certainly useful in my first years as a newly-graduated doctor.