Ciao tutti! Today is now my fourth day in Firenze. The trip to get here went immensely smoother than my previous trip to Italy. I left the Philadelphia airport around 10 PM on Tuesday and after flying through London and Rome, I landed in Florence at about 7 PM on Wednesday. The flights were great, practically empty, and I slept through most of them. Of course on the longest flight I had a person in front of me that was pretty much lying in my lap. Navigating the airports was easy and I was taken to my house with no issues. I should’ve listened to everyone when they told me to pack light because carrying my 50+ lb suitcases up two flights of marble stairs that were barely wide enough to fit my luggage was an adventure. My apartment is very tiny compared to my apartments in Sicily and apartments in America. It has all the necessities and I heard its nicer than some other students’ so I have no complaints there. The weather in Florence has not been ideal, and due to the electricity laws we can barely use any heat. I believe right now it is set on 18 degrees celsius, which to me, it might as well be snowing inside.
Thursday was filled with orientation and testing from dawn to dusk. That paired with jet lag forced almost all of us to take a nap before dinner that evening. My roommate and I found a restaurant a minute away from our house that served some awesome pesto, which was a great first meal. I’ve found that my Italian works here a lot better than it did in Sicily. I’ve loved being able to ask questions and order food and having them understand. I can tell that they appreciate and are impressed when American students try and successfully use their beautiful language.
Friday I decided to take a trip to the mercato to buy some groceries. I was so excited to get Italian strawberries or fragole as they are called here. I also bought the other essentials…bread, pasta, milk, and wine. Pretty much what my diet has and will consist of for the next couple months. Luckily I found out FUA has a gym that’s free for students. I will definitely be needing to go a few times a week with the amount of carbs we eat here.
Saturday was filled with exploring. I finally saw the bridge of my dreams…Ponte Vecchio. It was just as beautiful as I had seen in paintings and imagined it being. On either side of the bridge there are hand rails that couples put locks with their names on to symbolize their love. Later that day we got internet in our apartment and we all spent at least an hour catching up with emails and talking to family and friends. That night we went out to a few bars with an awesome group of people from our program. We spent the night dancing and running from bar to bar to stay out of the cold.
Sunday has been my favorite day here so far. A group of us woke up early and went to the futbol stadium to watch the Florence vs. Siena game. We all dressed in Fiorentina colors (viola & giallo) and tried to catch on to their crazy chants and songs. We all had a great time and are planning on going to as many games as possible. Tonight is my roommate’s birthday so we are going to go out for a celebratory dinner in a few hours. Classes start tomorrow, it’s going to be hard to focus on school in such a beautiful exciting place. However, I am taking classes such as the history of the Italian Renaissance, which is going to be amazing to learn about because it all happened right outside my classroom walls.
I am still in search of some nice leather boots and a jacket. Not that there aren’t millions to choose from, I am just looking for the best quality at the cheapest price. Today I walked into a shop with jackets for over a thousand euro and the shop owner told me to pick which jacket I wanted and it would be free if I went out for coffee with him. He even hugged me as I walked out of the store, so I may have to take him up on that offer if I could manage to get one of those beautiful jackets. I will keep you all updated on how that adventure goes and I will write again in a few weeks ! Next weekend I will be heading to Rome for the Avicii concert so I’m sure I will have lots of pictures and stories to share!
Arrivederci !
Kelsie – University of South Carolina
