Sadly, my period in Austria has come to an end. The internship was a summer gig and in October I will join another lab.

Wien is a wonderful place. I do not think I have lived in enought cities to develop a wise judgement, but I can safely say it has been the best one so far. In few words: it works. It’s safe, public transport is highly encouraged, life is easy and not as expensive as Milan for example. People never bother you and everyone is respectful. It’s not perfect, but nobody wants it. I highly recommend a visit.

In the summer (I was told the winter is kind of harder), you literally breathe life. People are out, things happen, there is in general a strong drive to enjoy what is thrown on the table. What struck me the most is the underground. Given that all citizens use it, it is some kind of open air view of the life of each resident. A TV-show with people falling in love and breaking up, happiness and sadness, very very nice. I really enjoyed this bit of my stay: where there is emotions there is wellness and humanity over all, believe it or not.

Getting to my job at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (in short ISTA), it has been wonderful. A very nice place, awesome people, and a solid expansion project. I am not an expert of research environments, but I could feel that there is some long-term project in the institution that goes well beyond my stay or everyone else’s. I have deeply enjoyed challenging myself in conducting research, and am now more than ever convinced to pursue a research career. This was never in doubt, but somehow every experience gives me more and more motivation.

Thank you IST, Thank you to the organizers of the internship. Thank you Marco, you have been a great supervisor, and your topics of research are very cool. Thank you to the whole group for being nice, for hosting me and teaching me every day something new. I will do my best to see you again sometime somewhere.

To anyone reading this, if you have the opportunity to spend some time in Wien or do research at IST, please go!