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I know that you use "have been to" instead of "have gone to" when you mention your past experience. But how about the case below?

  • Italy was the first foreign country I went to.
  • Italy was the first foreign country I had been to.
  • Italy was the first foreign country I had gone to.
  • Italy is the first foreign country I have been to.
  • Italy is the first foreign country I have gone to.

You went to Italy several years ago and you are already back. It was your first trip abroad. Which one would describe the situation best?

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  • What research did you do? I googled "was the first country I went to" and got over 40,000 results. You could try doing that for the others to see which are commonly used and which aren't. You could also search Google Books ngrams or other sources.
    – MarcInManhattan
    Nov 18, 2022 at 4:40
  • Google research doesn't mean anything much because those sentences might have been written by non-native speakers.
    – kuwabara
    Nov 18, 2022 at 7:40
  • Yes, you may have to look through some results to evaluate them. (Research involves work!) And Google Books ngrams, which I mentioned, allows you to search English-language books, the vast majority of which will have been written by native English speakers. I'm sure that you're smart enough to find other sources, too.
    – MarcInManhattan
    Nov 18, 2022 at 8:15

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