Ciao belli! I have finally made it to the beautiful city of Firenze. It has been a long and wild ride; I’ve only been here a few days and it feels like weeks have gone by since I’ve been home. The trip itself was long, but not horrible. We had a layover in Frankfurt, Germany, where I’m almost positive we had to walk under the runway to get to our gate. Then, we took a bus onto the runway to board our plane, something I've always dreamed of doing but never have. At that point I was already sleep happy, so I was about to cry out of happiness of one of my life long dreams coming true; I'm sure it was a sight to watch.
We finally made it to Florence, stood at the baggage claim crossing our fingers that our bags had all made it (which they had!) and got in our taxis to our new apartments for the next three months! The taxi ride was a trip in itself; it was a little scary at times (the Italians are crazy drivers), but mainly it was a breathtakingly beautiful tour of the city.
Two of my lovely roommates and myself after our long journey... extremely jet lagged.
My apartment and roommates are wonderful! The girls are so sweet and we all get along very well; who wouldn't with the palace we get to live in? Ok, palace might be an overstatement, but the apartment is HUGE! We have two bathrooms, a living room, an informal and formal dining room, a kitchen with a table as well, and three bedrooms all for five girls! Granted, the appliances, furniture, and decorations are ancient and have a lot of character, but it's all part of the Italian experience (so we're told)!
As much as I would love to give a detailed experience of our time, there's no way I possibly can without writing a small book. We've experienced so much already! So here are some of the highlights (in no particular order):
- Meeting Pietro, the man who owns the purse shop downstairs. He is our very attractive Italian friend who is always outside to say Ciao when we walk by. He looks out for us to; the other day he yelled at his friend for looking at me as I entered the house!
- Walking around the city and taking in all the beautiful architecture. Everything is so intricate and beautiful. I keep joking that Florence is Disneyland for grownups, and it's the complete truth! Everything is so beautiful here. There's so much to look at everywhere I go!
- Wandering the city by night. There are so many people out and about. The other night I was walking with Antoinette, one of my roommates, and we stumbled upon a mime doing a street show, sat outside a building where a choir was practicing Gregorian chant music on the second floor and listened, and wandered into a gorgeous little church to sit and pray and take in the beautiful artwork. The city is so alive here at night!
- Going out for a night on the town! Yes, I did a little bar hopping the other night, but don't worry I was extremely responsible. We found a bar that had a concert going on outside and listened for a while, and then moved on to some other cool bars.
- The Italian men ;) They are on a whole new level. Before anyone starts thinking I'm talking about their good looks let me stop you. Yes, there are attractive ones, but I'm talking about the way they flirt. They are hilarious! If you ever need an ego boost, come to Italia! I had one guy tell me I had a nice hair cut, I mean really? We can't go anywhere without hearing "Ciao bella!" And yes, I have had one Italian man buy me a rose already. We have dedicated a bulletin board and vase in our apartment to all of the creepy stories and things we receive from the Italian men. Needless to say, they're A LOT more forward than American men.
- THE FOOD! We had our first official Italian meal tonight. Yes, I've been eating Italian food since I've been here, however a full Italian dinner is quite the experience. There are many, many courses. The first is bread, followed by some of the most delicious bruschetta I've ever tasted (sorry Mom and Dad, it even rivals yours). Then, we move on to the "Primo," which was two different kinds of pasta (and not small portions by any means). After that is the "Secondi," the meat course. Ours consisted of chicken and potatoes. Finally, we had dessert, which was some sort of custard with strawberries in a chocolate cup, covered in chocolate sauce. And of course, all of this is accompanied by delicious red wine. Then, to make the experience even more complete, we had a wonderful show of Italian hospitality. One of the girls at our table was full and didn't want to finish her desert. Well, the Italian waitresses weren't having any of that! After trying to get her to eat it time after time, they took it away and brought her something else, thinking she would magically be hungry for it. To their dismay, she still wasn't hungry! Thinking she didn't want something fattening, they proceeded to bring out a pineapple boat, which she still didn't eat, but the rest of us did! They were very disappointed, and we were all stuffed by the end of it! It was such a wonderful and yet typical experience!
- Cooking dinner for the first time in our apartment. We got some pasta, veggies, and a bottle of wine (which I have lovingly named "three euro Nero," instead of the American "two buck Chuck"). It was an interesting experience; let's just say the appliances all have a lot of... character. Each nob has to be "just so" for it to work correctly. It was a very long, yet wonderful experience. We had a lot of fun figuring everything out.
- Our first grocery shopping experience. Apparently, here you have to get your produce, weigh it, and print out a sticker with the price BEFORE you go to the checkout line. Well, we didn't get the memo and stood in line with all of our produce and then had about three different Italians trying to tell us what we did wrong. It was a little embarrassing, to say the least.
All in all, I'm having a fabulous time, and I wish all of my friends (that means you!) were here to experience this with me. I'm already having the time of my life!
Until the next time,
Mollina (this is the name my Italian teacher gave me today; apparently it means "little Molly." She kept laughing every time she said it- at least it makes her smile)
"I'm a new soul, I came to this strange world hoping I could learn a bit 'bout how to give and take. But since I came here, felt the joy and the fear, finding myself making every possible mistake." Yael Naim
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