Benvenuti a Firenze!

Buonasera amici!

We have arrived in Florence! YAY! Remember how much I loved Rome? Well, I love Florence even more.  Florence is more of what I was expecting to see when I came here.  Rome was more like a big city - very similar to the New York feel.  But Florence is a bit smaller (300,000 people instead of millions living here) and more quaint.  The uniqueness of the Italian culture is definitely more prominent.  The streets are a bit quieter and they are not overrun with cars and vespas in the middle of the city.  So excited to not be dodging cars as often.  It seems that more people walk here than drive.  The city is so clean! I literally have not seen one bit of trash.  I love this city.  Oh.  And the shopping is ridiculous.  Almost all of the stores are specifically unique to Italy or Florence.  The only shops that I recognized were Gucci, Chanel, and H&M.  ...  I know.  Also, the gelato festival started yesterday!!! How perfect is that.

My life:

Yesterday, we woke up around 6:30am to get ready to leave for Firenze! Christin and I were somehow early for breakfast, and Massimo (the breakfast dude) looked at us like we were crazy... heh.  We were hyped for some of dat caprese.  Yep.  Tomatoes again! hah After the best coffee ever and a ton of random breakfast food, we headed to the bus for the threeish(?) hour bus ride to Firenze (Florence!).  We drove through the Italian countryside.  Wow.  So gorgeous! I was tired, but I didn't want to close my eyes and miss the beautiful scenery! Our bus was a Mercedes Benz with purple and pink interior.  Big.  Pimpin'.  After a few hours, we stopped at a rest stop somewhere... don't know where because GPS doesn't exist without some good ole fashioned data roaming. ;) The rest stop was like a Buccee's, a convenient store/gas station, a grocery store, and an informercial all in one.  Cray.  It was absolute chaos.  No one knew where the line was or how/where to pay for things.  Oh, fun fact.  A lot of the toilets don't have seats.  But they have holes where the seats are attached... meaning that the seats were taken off... I don't understand...  We got sandwiches for lunch.  Guess what kind I had.  CAPRESE! Whoa.  Mind.  Blown.  We got back on the bus, and a little while later, we arrived in Firenze!

The Duomo!

Firenze felt like coming home.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  The city is much smaller than Rome and waaaay easier to navigate... sort of.  It is still Italian and complicated.  For example, a building could be labeled as building 45 red or building 45 black.  So there are two buildings labeled 45.  And the roads change names as you walk down them.  And there are streets that are different from avenues... Whaaaat.  Oh, well.  I love it.  After arriving in Florence, we were taken to our new apartments where we will be living for the next month!!!! AH! Our apartment building door is HUGE and wooden and old and irony and perfect.  The keys are a bit complicated though.  We have multiple keys for multiple doors to get inside of the apartment.  But I'm okay with that - more safety! The street we live on is so adorable and close to all of the good stuff.  We have two bedrooms, one for me and Christin and another for Shannon and Diane.  We all share a bathroom.  Our shower is very interesting.  It is a shower head that is located on the wall opposite of the toilet (keep in mind that the bathroom is verrrry narrow).  There is a small drain in the middle of the bathroom.  So when you shower, you basically just stand right in front of the toilet, and the water goes everywhere... haha It's definitely an experience! I'm not too bothered by it.  After working at a summer camp, I'm hard to surprise when it comes to stuff like that.  We have a sitting room, a dining room-type thing, and a large kitchen.  All of the kitchen appliances look like they belong in a doll house and are rather difficult to work.  But it's great.  And.  Drum roll please.  We have a rooftop terrace with a pretty view of monumental buildings in Florence.  No big deal or anything.  Excuse me while I sip on my glass of vino whole lounging on my Italian rooftop terrace.  Who does that?! It isn't exactly luxurious, but hey, a rooftop terrace in Italy? Yes, please.

Our cute little rooftop terrace!

After getting settled into our apartment, we headed to a welcome dinner at a rooftop terrace ristorante on the top of a hotel that overlooks the entire city.  Italians love their rooftop terraces.  The dinner was delizioso! Finally an entire meal that I truly enjoyed and didn't make me sick! It's definitely a good sign.  My favorite thing we ate was a vegetable lasagna.  So good.  And some kind of ravioli that I didn't recognize.  It was buffet style.  Guess what else was on my plate... CAPRESE! I'm gonna turn into a tomato.  After dinner, we headed back to the apartment to get some sleep.

Rooftop terrace dinner!

Sleepy time.  EVERYTHING echos.  The walls are made of concrete and the windows are useless for blocking noise.  So we heard everything that was going on in the street - even the footsteps of people walking in tennis shoes.  It was crazy! But we were so tired, it really didn't matter.  Also, there is no air conditioning to help block out noise.  Not having air conditioning isn't bad at all.  The weather is perfect and it stays cool in the apartment.  If it gets stuffy, we just open a window.  It did get a bit cold last night though.  Our room is like a cave.  Love it.

First full day in Florence! Yay! This morning, we woke up at 8:30am to meet up with the group to do a walking tour of Florence.  This city is gorgeous and so incredibly unique! I must admit though,  I am getting a bit tired of touring... Our tour guides are awesome and I love seeing everything, but I would really like to get the chance to have some serious down time or time to explore on our own.  But I know that's coming soon...ish...! We were taking pictures at the Ponte Vecchio and apparently we took too long because the tour left us... hah.  Oops.  We took off in a solid power walk to get to the bridge to try to find the rest of the group.  Thank goodness for our international phones! We called one of the girls who had noticed we were all missing.  She came to find us and we were reunited with the group.  I guess we aren't very good at tours.  Meh.  We got in some good selfie shots.  The tour guide gave us many useful tips and information that are definitely going to help us in the coming weeks.  At the end of the tour, he took us through a market that contained all sorts of cheese, bread, wine, fruit, veggies, and meat.  Everything looked super fresh. And then we saw it.  A baby lamb that had been skinned with its entire body still fully intact... Oh my goodness.  It still had eyeballs.  And the chickens looked like they had been freshly plucked and they still had heads... Well, I guess that was the culture shock of the day.

Walking tour of Florence.

After the tour, we had some free time before our academic orientation.  Christin, Shannon, Diane, and I were starving.  Our breakfast was pretty lame... For lunch, we decided to go back to the market to get some fresh fruit and veggies.  I used my Italian big time.  I felt like a pro. ;) We then saw a stand where we could get carved meat.  We all got a few slices of turkey.  We took our food back to the hotel and sat at our little dining room table for our first family lunch at our apartment.  Guess what I had at this meal? Tomatoes! hah. Yep.  The turkey was terrible.  Surprise, surprise.  Shannon was scared to try it after seeing the face I made.  Heh.

After lunch, we headed to LdM for our academic orientation.  Whoo! Not too much to talk about there, except that a police officer came to talk to us about local laws.  This place is serious.  We have been told so many times by the officer, our directors, and our advisors not to make eye contact with men.  Apparently, they take it as an invitation.  Especially if you smile.  There goes that Southern hospitality.  I feel so rude. :(  Oh, well.  Maybe that's why we think everyone here is so rude.  Probably because most people from the South are so nice.

After the orientation, we had some free time.  Christin and I picked up a few things from Sephora (necessary).  Then we went to the supermercato.  Everything is at different places in Italy.  For example, if you need Advil, paper towels, and snacks, you would have to go to three different places.  There is no Wal-Mart type place.  Well.  We spent a solid 15 minutes trying to figure out what the detergent bottle said.  Maybe that's what I will learn in Italian 201.  Hah.  It was definitely an adventure.  I also got some baby q-tips because they didn't have regular ones.  They have huge ends on them.  It's interesting trying to make them work.  I also got some peanut butter so I have some protein since I am basically a vegetarian now.  After that ordeal, we got some delicious gelato and headed back to the apartment to get ready for our cooking class!

Cooking class group!

Delizioso!

Our cooking class was awesome! We made a zucchini, eggplant, cheese thing for an appetizer.  Then we made pasta for an entrée.  We hand-rolled the pasta noodles... they were super yummy, but it definitely isn't the fastest way to make it happen.  We also made a meat sauce.  Aaaand we made tiramisu for dessert.  SO GOOD! Leftovers will definitely be eaten for breakfast.  After our cooking class, we headed out originally in search of a nice place with vino.  Instead, we got distracted by all of the liveliness of the streets of Firenze! There is a square with pillars holding up a roof that is used as a market during the day that was turned into a roller rink tonight...? haha It looked like they were working on tricks.  Professional roller bladers? I can dig it.  Then Diane almost got hit by a police car.  I saw her life flash before my eyes.  Scariest/funniest moment of my life.  There was live music everywhere! We eventually stopped to watch a guy do a magic/comedy show.  As we were walking to get a better view, I guess I turned my back on him and he stopped what he was doing and ran into the crowd, grabbed me and started yelling... I had a heart attack.  He did it as a joke.  Everyone laughed, but I was scarred for life.  He pulled two people from our group out of the crowd and integrated them into his show.  It was pretty funny.  After that, Christin and I headed back to the apartment to attempt to get some sleep because we have a really early morning tomorrow... well... it is super loud outside.  So I guess that will have to wait.  Oh, Italy.

Street art!

Tomorrow we have a day trip to Cinque Terre! I am so excited! I think we may wear Nike shorts and tennis shoes and maybe even a t-shirt!!! Hiking attire?! WHAT?! I'm pumped.

Funny things that Christin has said:

"I like his purse."

"Pigeons... They're like rats with wings."

"If we're made out of star dust, why don't we shine?"

"It smells like band aids in here."

"I nearly hurt myself with the squigie! It's dangerous in there!"

Fun facts:

Christin and I are literally the same person... we are already finishing each other's sentences, saying - things at the same times, and quite literally reading each other's minds.

"Arena" means "sand" in Latin.  We learned that at the Colosseum!

No one tips in restaurants here.

They sell "obscene material" at newsstands like it's no big deal.

The streets are cobble stone, and I have almost twisted my ankles multiple times... I'm too clumsy for this.

Ciao!