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Barcelona VS. Urbino for Study Abroad
Hello I am an architecture student and my school requires study abroad for a semester for my junior year and I have to pick my location by next semester. My school offers two programs, Barcelona Spain (18 students) or Urbino Italy (100 students). The Barcelona trip is centered in the major city in apartments with only 18 students allowed to go, and it also includes travel to Northern and Southern Spain. The Urbino trip is centralized in a small town in the middle of nowhere, not near a transit center at the dormitory of the local university. The class is much larger, and also travels across the country like Venice, Rome, and Florence. I thought about going to the Italy trip because I like Italian architecture, but I rather stay in a large city like Barcelona near a large transit system so I can do independent travel. I wouldn't mind going to Spain or Italy, but I also wondered which one is cheaper, Spain or Italy? Which country has more of a variety of architecture? So which program should I go to? Thanks for your time and help.
Having never been to Urbino, I'll say this for sure:
go to Barcelona, you won't regret it.
Barcelona is an amazing city in terms of culture and history, with great architecture around every corner.
Smaller class size = more attention to your project from studio and visiting critics, better studio culture.
Airfare from Barca to Rome is around $100 for a two-way trip - you can go anywhere you want in Europe for fairly cheap on a long weekend, or when Spain 'shuts down' for Easter.
also, idk about Italy, but the academic week in Spain when I was there was 4 days on, 3 days off. It was the most productive time of my grad studies, and the most fun I've had in the course of a semester...
Thanks for your advice and opinion. I was leaning towards Barcelona as well. If I can get in, (good chance, because of my high GPA) I will probably go that route. Thanks again.
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