Florence So Far

Florence So Far…

Hello all! Well, I feel like I have been in Florence forever, when in actuality it has been only a little over a week! So much has happened in such a short period of time.

Let’s start with our arrival in Florence…

We took a train from Rome at around 4:00, which was a good time since it was just when the protests against Bush and the Iraq war were gearing up. We were so exhausted, we slept (well, at least I did) for most of the train ride, but I still managed to catch some of the views of the countryside going by, and it was beautiful!

In an hour and a half, we arrived in Florence, thanks to a very speedy Eurostar train.

We were running a little late, so we grabbed our luggage and took off into the crowded streets of Florence. Navigating these tiny sidewalks full of people with a large rolling suitcase is no fun at all! By the time we found my apartment, I was already 10-15 minutes late, and all hot and sweaty. Drew headed to his apartment while I waited for mine…and waited…and waited. I rang the buzzer to no avail. By 7:00, I was freaking out – what if I have no place to stay in Florence!? Then my landlord came down the stairs (probably on his way out, thinking I never showed after a half hour of waiting) and I got into my apartment.

My apartment is really nice but it’s at the top of 4 flights of very narrow, steep old stone stairs! It is cool inside though, a kind of “shabby chic” , with white walls and floors that are a little weathered, and Ikea furniture, decorations, appliances, sheets, dishes....I might as well be living in an Ikea showroom. But, it is really nice! We even have a balcony that has a nice view of the pretty Florentine rooftops.

Our apartments are really close to each other, which is great – Drew’s is only a street down from mine. Our first night here, we moved my stuff in to my apartment, went to Drew’s and moved his stuff in, and then we went out walking until we found a restaurant. We ended up at this beautiful little outdoor restaurant with a big loggia eating area with big old columns, lots of flowers and plants, and this beautiful star shaped chandeliers. The food was sooo good. For our primi piatti , Drew got pasta with meat sauce, and I got penne with tomatos and mozzarella For the secondi piatti, Drew got the most delicious steak, and I got the best piece of chicken I think I’ve ever eaten (sorry Mom) – but maybe that was just because of how hungry I was at the time.

On Sunday, my roommates arrived in the morning. In the afternoon, Drew and I went down the street to the market to buy groceries. It was a little overwhelming because everything was in Italian (obviously) and the markets here are a LOT different than home. Ours is called “MagiMarket” and it’s basically the size of about two grocery aisles at home. Well, maybe a bit bigger than that, but the organization of the store is completely different, and we’ve had to get used to going to several different types of stores in order to find everything we need. Also, we’ve discovered that Italians don’t really buy in bulk – probably because you have to carry your groceries not just to your car, but a few blocks to your apartment! And then up a few flights of stairs!

After dropping groceries off at my apartment, we headed to Drew’s place and soon after, his roommate arrived, with his girlfriend and her friend. So, we chatted with them for a bit, and then headed to my apartment to cook dinner. Our first night we cooked a very delicious meal of sausage and rigatoni, and bread, and red wine. Yum!

Monday morning was orientation for school. We got there at 10:00 and had a brief little session where we found out our classes and other important information. We are both taking Michelangelo and His Works, an art history class that meets only Tuesdays and Thursdays – and practically every Thursday is a museum or church visit! So our schedule is really nice. After a tour of the school, we had the most amazing lunch – plate after plate of pastas and pizzas, and then delicious dessert! After lunch we had more info sessions and then took a walking tour of Florence. From there, we headed to the train station to catch a bus up to Settignano, a hill town where we were being served dinner as a group. After an incredibly hot and crowded bus ride, we arrived in the very picturesque town of Settignano and walked to our restaurant, where we ate in an outdoor courtyard that had a view of the sunset! They served us three courses, so by the end of the meal we were so full! After dinner, we chatted a bit with the girls at our table, and then headed out of the restaurant to check out the town. We ran into Drew’s roommate Shaun, his girlfriend Christine, her friend Tatum, and another guy Stephen, and decided to grab a drink at a little outdoor restaurant before catching the bus back.

Once in Florence, we hung out on the steps of the Duomo for a while before leaving for our apartments. The next day was class! First day was pretty standard, we just talked for a while. Class is three hours but we get a lot of breaks, which makes it bearable. After class we got lunch and then, following Italian tradition, it was naptime! (I’m really fitting right in to this culture ^_^)

The rest of our week was pretty standard, just running errands and such, so I won’t bother going into it. On Friday, our program provided a day trip to Siena and San Gimignano, two Tuscan hill towns a little over an hour away from Florence. They were both beautiful!

In Siena, we saw the most gorgeous cathedral! The decorations inside were so ornate it was hard to take them all in. We also grabbed lunch with our friends, where we got the biggest calzones I’ve ever seen! Mine was cheese and pesto, and Drew’s was prosciutto and cheese.

In San Gimignano, we had beautiful views of the Tuscan countryside. The town is full of towers and is one of the few remaining medieval towns in Italy. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time there, but I did manage to find my favorite blue pottery (I bought a piece last time I was in Italy) and so I added to my collection a bit.

Friday night we ate dinner over Christine and Tatum’s apartment, and then we all went out to the Friends bar for a drink.

On Saturday, we went with Shaun, Christine and Tatum to Pisa and Lucca. In Pisa, we obviously saw the Leaning Tower…and that’s about all there is to see. We took the standard pictures holding up the tower and Drew took one kicking it over, and then we grabbed lunch and headed to Lucca.

Lucca was very beautiful. It is a small town about 20 minutes outside Pisa, and is one of the few remaining walled cities. It has walls that stretch all the way around it – they are a few miles long, and very wide on top. You don’t even feel like you are on a wall when you are standing on top, because there are grassy parks, restaurants and playgrounds up there. Lucca seemed more like a lived-in city – the church had posters with the children’s projects on them, and other community announcements, and we passed an elementary school with plastic playground equipment in the yard. It was very peaceful in Lucca. We climbed this amazing tower, Torre Guinigi (I think), that was really tall and had trees growing on top of it! From it, there was the most amazing view – you could see the tree line that grew on top of the wall surrounding Lucca, and then beyond that, the valley, and beyond that, the mountains that circled Lucca on all sides. Some of the mountains were so tall, they reached into the clouds! It was breathtaking.

After the Tower we headed to the one busy street in Lucca, where all the fancy shops are, and then stopped into the cathedral before heading back to the train station. All in all, it was a great day!

Sunday, we slept in and then because it was a cloudy day and looked like rain, we just stayed in and played cards (we have no TVs, so we’ve been playing cards quite a lot).

Monday was even more boring (though productive) because we both cleaned our apartments all morning – very thorough cleaning, mopped the floors, wiped the walls, did the toilets and showers – the whole thing. That afternoon we continued in our boring streak by heading to the grocery store, which was actually really exciting because we found probably the closest it will get to grocery stores at home – a store with 4 check out aisles! Maybe even five…

The selection was so big, it was amazing! There was good produce, and we found Italian break and bake cookies!

That night we redeemed ourselves by going to club for the Accademia Italiana welcome party. It was called YAB and was hilarious because all the songs were American hits, the most recent ones being about 5 years old. The drinks were really overpriced so we made up for it by getting Long Island iced teas, hung out with friends and danced for a bit, and then we left.

Yesterday we figured out our trip to Venice – we got lucky, and even though there is a train strike, we managed to find a train leaving on Friday, so we can still go for the weekend!

That’s it for now!

Ciao!

Laura