Florence, so far

(I technically wrote this yesterday, but the internet wouldn’t let me load it)

I’ve been a Florentine for ten days now! 

Where to begin... since arriving in Florence, the best moments of the trip have happened, and the worst moments have happened. I guess because we are living here for such a long period of time compared to the rest of the trip, there is a lot of room for many ups and downs while we are here. But let me first start with what Florence is like.

The Italians consider Florence a “little big city” (I forgot the phrase in Italian) because though it is considered one of the most well-known, art-capital-of-the-world cities, it really isn’t that big or overwhelming. You can get pretty much anywhere in the city center on foot, and we have definitely proven that with the tons of walking we’ve been doing (yay butt!). There are a lot of nice stores and cafes here (some that sell their cappuccinos for a lot less than others), and not nearly as many cheap touristy stores as we saw in Venice. The Italians I’ve been able to talk with have been very friendly, but there is also a very surprising American/British population here. I definitely hear English on the streets of Florence more than I hear Italian, something I didn’t expect. For the most part, we have had beautiful, cool, sunny days for touring, (Spring is almost here!) but the past couple days have been rainy. Our tour guide for our time in Florence is named Francesca, a hilarious, upbeat woman who always keeps us on our toes. She is hilarious and very eager to help us in any way she can.

Let’s start out with the not so great moments since arriving in Florence:

1)    I lost my first large chunk of money (50 euros)

2)    Liz, my roommate, and I both woke up on Friday sick as dogs. It was convenient that Friday, Saturday and today were all free days, so we didn’t have to tour the museums and churches while sick, but it was also a bummer to spend most of our time indoors. We’re both a little better today, but it is definitely going around. Cameron, Dr. Hestermann, Amanda, Roo, and Jane-Allison all have similar symptoms...Liz is convinced it’s a deadly Italian pathogen we’re not used too...I'm convinced it's just a cold. 

3)    I experienced my first extremely uncomfortable situation with an Italian man. Of course, I did everything wrong that you’re not supposed to do in a situation like that, but it’s difficult not to be polite! I was sitting in the lounge area of our hotel Thursday night by myself with my laptop, trying to get some work done and emails answered. All of a sudden, this slightly older Italian man walks by, stops, and proceeds to have a conversation with me. At first I was only bothered by the fact that he was interrupting a very important email I was trying to concentrate on, so I smiled politely while I answered his questions. Then he asked me if I wanted a drink with him. I said yes. Oops. So he went to the bar, came back with two drinks, and sat down next to me. He asks me more questions, grabs my hand, strokes my wrist, and then proceeds to talk about sex. Hooray. It was soon after this that I got up enough courage to tell him I had to go. The best part of this whole story is that he works at the hotel...as our waiter. So I get to see his beautiful face many more times before we leave.

I guess in retrospect, there are worse things that can happen. I’ve realized if those are the worst moments of the trip so far, I’m having a pretty good trip! And now, the best moments:

1)    Walking through the Boboli Gardens. My camera battery died before I was able to take any pictures of this beautiful place (sorry!), but I didn’t mind. I enjoyed just walking around with the group and staring at all the beautiful green. The Boboli Gardens are located behind the Pitti Palace and is probably the most famous park in Florence, known for it’s huge size and old history (I think it was designed in the middle of the 16^th century). It was so refreshing to walk around such a large expanse of green after spending so much time surrounded by traffic and buildings. If I have come to any realization so far, it is that I am never going to live in a city. I miss the trees too much.

2)    Walking up the dome of the Duomo AND the Duomo’s belltower in the same day! The hike up the stairs (around 450 for each of them) was not easy, but it was fun telling each other we were almost there. Once we got to the top, the view of Florence from these structures was unbelievable! We were able to climb on one of the warmest, most sunny days we’ve had so far, and it was amazing to be able to take pictures, point out landmarks we recognized, and try and count all the villas in the surrounding mountains.

3)    Wednesday was Dr. Leavell’s 70^th birthday! For those of you who don’t know Dr. Leavell, he would be proud of the fact that I was telling everyone is age, because he does NOT look nearly that old. He and his beautiful, wonderful wife Judy (who came to Italy with us!) have spent the majority of their lives traveling the world together, and there is no stopping them. Their next planned trip is for Egypt! They have so much spunk, energy, and kindness between them, it is hard not to be obsessed. Anyway, we wanted to let Dr. Leavell know how much we loved him, so we had a little birthday party for him in the hotel after dinner. Isn't he the cutest??

4)    Italian hot chocolate. Or more like a melted chocolate bar in a cup. I was with my wonderful Jackie when I got my first cup last week! 

5)    Yesterday, I decided to venture out of my quarantine zone to join some girls in a walk up to the church of San Miniato, located on a huge hill overlooking the city. We wanted to make it to hear the Gregorian chants that the monks do. After powerwalking up the side of the hill for forty-five minutes (with Ashley in heels because she had to go somewhere directly afterwards and didn’t have time to change...she is baller), we got to the church with four minutes to spare...until we realized that we were actually an hour early. After laughing at ourselves for how quickly we had walked, we decided to make the best of our hour by the church and get some gelato. Sitting on the steps, eating gelato, and gazing out of the city with these new, uplifting people in my life was so wonderful. An hour later we really did hear the chants in the church...simply haunting and beautiful.

Time to get some sleep before a full day of touring tomorrow. I hope all my Furman people’s spring breaks went amazingly! Miss y’all oh so much.

Much love!