Allora: Thoughts on the first week

A shot from our walk home our first night in Florence.

As I write this post regrouping from my first full week of classes, I finally feel like I have enough time to breathe and reflect a little bit on my past and future experiences so far in Florence.

For starters, as mentioned in my last brief post, this past week has been an incredible amount to take in. It has kept bringing me back to the way I felt freshman year in college where everyone was just looking to meet new people and try new things as often as they could. That being said, so much has happened this first week that it has felt more like a month. It's still a blessing every time I make it back to my apartment without getting lost but I am already getting comfortable calling Florence my home for the next four months.

Classes have been a great experience so far. My schedule is surprisingly more busy than I had anticipated, but the routine in itself is enough to help these days feel a bit more normal. And it helps that I can honestly say I love all of my subjects and teachers. It has been inspiring to hear about some of their experiences that have led them to teach American students in Florence, and the cultural miscommunications are always funny for both parties. Some highlights:

• My entire Sociology of Art class got to experience our professor's mind being blown in front of us as we explained to him who and how popular a cartoon named Spongebob Squarepants was.
• In an attempt to translate the Italian phrase, "Once you have seen Naples, you can die happy," our European Union professor shared a more ominous, "You go to Naples, and, how you say, you die." This was followed up by, "Luxembourg is very boring. There is a bridge in Luxembourg that is very famous. For suicide. Because of all the boredom."
• After letting out a loud laugh in our first cultural workshop, the professor asked if that was how my laugh sounded normally. After confirming that it was, he nodded and let me know that that will just be one more thing to add to the list of things that will make me stand out here.

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But after our first full week, I am definitely starting to feel a satisfying feeling of content knowing that I've already done so much yet still have so much left to do.

Our first weekend led us to climb both Florence's famous Duomo and the accompanying Giotto's Bell Tower. 

And if there was any piece of advice that I so far wish I had paid more attention to, it's that we should have climbed both during the week when there were less tourists.

You can tell we were all still pretty jetlagged.

The stairs leading up to the the top of both were wide enough to fit maybe one fat  guy, which made things difficult when too many people would collide trying to go up and down. But each view was like something out of a postcard.

We also made it up to Piazzele Michelangelo which is on the other side of the River Arno from our apartment and quite a ways up some Florentine hills but also provided one of the best city views I've ever seen. What makes me most excited about exploring new spots and finding new exciting areas is the prospect of sharing them when friends and family come to visit. Hopefully by the time my first guest stops by I'll be able to plan a full itinerary of the best places to go and see.

I'd hate to ramble on in these blog posts so I'll only touch upon one more thing this time: Food.

I unfortunately haven't taken my camera out on the town since this weekend's explorations since we've been very busy getting used to our new schedules, so with limited pictures of all the food I'm eating you'll just have to take my word for it at the moment that almost every meal we've had has been unbelievable.

It's been difficult finding consistent breakfasts that we're used to (They're not big on that over here so we've been relying a good amount on cereal and pastries from cafes when we're on the go) but the lunch and dinner options have been reliably amazing. My most authentic experience so far has been at a panini shop near one of our campuses called The Prosciuterria. On the way back to our apartment, Kevin and I stopped in and tried the store's namesake with some mozzerela. Our waiter immediatley grabbed some meat the size of my abdomen that was hanging from the wall, butchered it in half, and sliced about a quarter pound of it onto my sandwich. It's safe to say I'll be stopping by there pretty often.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned since being here is one that I staunchly denied when I was told before leaving: You really can't live on pizza and pasta alone. It's absolutely going to be much more of a staple here these next few months, but after the first few days of carb loading to the extreme, I was brought back to life by the smallest piece of chicken. Lesson learned.

Still, the pizza and pasta have been amazing. So far the best pizza we've had has been from Gusta Pizza, a popular place also a short walk across the river that's known for giving heart-shaped pizzas to cute girls (I have to say I was a little insulted when mine came out in regular circle).

But in closing, I have to again recognize how lucky I am for getting this experience in the first place and all that's come since. From the food to the classes to the sights to the great guys that make up Apartment 3B, it's already been a crazy fun ride.

This margarita stood no chance.

Needless to say, thank you again for stopping by. To my friends, I can understand that with so many people we know studying somewhere else beautiful in the world, one more blog may come off as white noise. But it has been all of your support and best wishes that have helped to make the transition into a new place all the more easier.

Expect my next post to cover this weekend's day trips that we have coming up. Tomorrow we are heading to Chianti for a tour of the city and some of it's vineyards (Hopefully the expected rain will hold off for a bit) and then to Siena and San Gimignano for the entire day Saturday.

Arrivederci for now.