A view of florence before my plane landed

Arno River under Ponte Vecchio

The first impressions of being in Italy are still hitting me-I’m in awe of this beautiful city, but more in awe of the Italian culture. I have this insane amount of adrenaline wanting to see and eat everything and it started long before I landed in Florence. Before my plane had completely landed in Florence, I couldn’t stop looking at the Tuscany region and the incredible hills with the brightest green grass. Now, granted, I was a few thousand feet up in the air, but everything was completely breathtaking. As I was being driven to my Italian apartment after leaving the airport, I secretly adored the idea of walking everywhere, considering all the drivers left about an inch between their car and another driver haha. In Kansas, cars never drive that close to other cars or to people walking because there are huge roads everywhere! I secretly adore this lifestyle though-there are people everywhere, everyone dresses so beautifully, and it’s a huge city-I’ve wanted to get away from the small town life and move to a big city for, what feels like, forever!

Arno River

Gate enclosed backyard- Via Ghibellina

Upon reaching my apartment, a few things that shocked me included the apartment building itself, my room and the bathrooms. The apartment building has a huge door that you can unlock and leads into your apartment building; I find this amazing because it reminds me of New York City and how the apartment buildings are there. My room, and in fact the whole apartment, are huge! I am still shocked. And lastly, the bathrooms have light switches on the outsides of the doors and buttons to push to flush the toilets-this definitely shocked me, and then I looked up at the ceiling! The ceiling has a different fresco painting in each room and they are absolutely exquisite. The amount of art, sculptures, buildings, churches, colors, etc., in Florence have completely engrossed me. It’s hard to fathom that people as old as the 11^th & 12^th century made monuments and historical artifacts as exquisite as the artifacts here. It’s absolutely breathtaking-I’ve already fallen in love with this city thanks to these wonderful sights to look at.

Inside Palazzo Borghese- Via Ghibellina, 110

My apartment backyard- Via Ghibellina

Now, for the food, which we all know is such an important part of Italy! My first meal was a delicious pasta made with zucchini flowers and saffron spice. There are so many first impressions I could share about this single meal, but I was impressed. First, water costs which is different than in my hometown. Second, they have exquisite dishes all so simple but full of flavor and paired perfectly, for example, a salad of Parmesan cheese and raw artichokes with olive oil and red wine. Third, they bring out your dish when it’s ready, not all together like at a traditional restaurant. This really impressed me because it was fresh and hot out of the kitchen. For the dessert, there has been nothing that I’ve tried that I haven’t fallen in love with, and I don’t like sweet foods so that says a lot! We had a meringue and a fruit cheesecake tart and filled croissants paired with full flavor café and dessert wines. Your mouth practically waters with these meals. So far, everything has been a dream come true and I don’t think the jet lag has officially hit yet because I have so much adrenaline being here in florence! I cannot believe that I haven’t even been here a week yet and I have list after list of things to go see, do and eat! I can’t wait to see what the rest of this semester brings-till next time!

Restaurant Vecchi Sapori- Via dei Magazzini, 3/r

Duomo

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Andrea is a current student at Kansas State University studying at Florence University of the Arts in Italy during the Spring 2015 term.