Internship in Italy

Rimgailė Milkutė
It all began 4 months ago when I started my Erasmus+ post-graduated internship. I arrived to Italy at the end of August ready to work as a receptionist at the hotel. This is one of those jobs I have always wanted to do. At the beginning I was a bit worried as anytime you start something new but soon my worries passed away. I met my mentor who is a really nice person and later I got to know my colleagues who are all very nice persons too. My tasks were to reserve the hotel rooms, to insert the reservation into the system, to answer the phone calls and emails, to do check-in and check-out for the customers. During the summer season, there were a lot of tourists from all over the world so I had an opportunity to use my English skills too and I had a chance to talk to people from other countries and to know better their culture. Another thing which is really common in this kind of work is to solve problems of clients. There were a lot of situations when there was going something wrong in the room or our customers had other kind of problems and I had to solve them, so it was a good experience in problems’ solving. Furthermore, the receptionist is a person who has to know everything so I had to learn a lot of new things such as where to eat in the town, what to visit, where to buy food and souvenirs, local transportation routes and timetables, etc.
My internship took place in a small town called San Miniato. It is situated between Florence and Pisa, in Tuscany. The town is in a good place, strategically positioned so there were a lot of tourists. Unfortunately, it is very small town and there are almost no activities so I spent my free time walking and admiring the beautiful valleys of Tuscany (the town is on the hill so the view is amazing). When I had free days, I tried to travel as much as possible because there are numerous places to visit in that region.
All in all, I can say that this Erasmus+ internship was more than useful because I improved my Italian, understood what it means to be an employee (not a student anymore), learnt a lot of useful things in this kind of working area, met new people and knew other countries’ cultures. I can truly say that thanks to this internship I am more grown-up and more open-minded person now!