First Weekend in Florence!!

At Gonzaga-in-Florence (GIF from now on) we don’t have school on Fridays. We have longer class periods during the week, but we get an extra day for travel every weekend. This weekend though I stayed in town and got to know my friend: Florence.

Thursday night I went out to dinner. When dining out the pizzas are always the cheapest thing on the menu. Pizza in Italy is not at all the cheesy grease fest back home. They are so good here! Also between 8 of us at dinner, we drank 4 liters of wine. “Vino Della Casa” is all you need to know. The house wine is the best and the cheapest.

After dinner a bunch of us walked around the city confused as to what to do next. We thought we were going to a bar called Friends, but no one knew how to get there. It seemed like everyone at Gonzaga was doing the same thing. And we all kept running into each other. Traveling anywhere – even across the street – is immensely difficult with large groups of people, so it’s easy to get frustrated. If you are standing in basically any piazza (square)

someone will come up to you with a flyer and offer to walk to you a bar. So some of us followed a man to a place called “The Fish Pub” but it was boring there so we left after only a few minutes. We headed back towards the Duomo and ended up at a trendy place where everything was way overpriced. Again, I left without buying any drinks.

Lesson Learned: Don’t stand still near the Duomo.

Friday I went to IKEA and spent too much money cause I got all excited since it was my first IKEA. We also had our group photo that morning. They put the photo on the cover of the brochure they give to freshman and sophomores. So when I’m a senior that will be my year to be on the cover. The picture spot is at the Michelangelo view point. It’s about a 45 minute walk from school and a lot of it is uphill. But it is worth it, the view of the city from up there is

spectacular! (Parents: when you come visit I am making you walk up there, probably in the evening when it’s cooler out, and we can see the sun set! And bring Panini! Yay! You can get a good Panini for about €2 here.) Sorry I look to squinty in the picture, it was SO bright out!

My room mate and I went on an adventure to do our laundry Friday afternoon. We got lost and walked around the city with our laundry for far too long. Eventually we found the Wash and Dry. Laundry in Italy so expensive! It’s almost cheaper to just buy new underwear than wash the ones you have. It takes €3.50 to get a token. One token does one load of wash or one dry. But the dryers are pretty big so you really just need 3 tokens. However, the dryer only goes for 25 minutes so the clothes do not really dry. I had to hang my clothes are around the room on the chair, desk, window, closet doors, doorknobs, etc. to dry to them fully.

Went and got dinner at a place called “Istanbul Kebab” and I learned that a kebab is far more than food on a stick. Mine came in a wrap. It was really good too and only €4. That night 3 of us walked around the city and we found some really cool things!

First we found the best gelato thus far. The place is called Perche No (Why Not?). We walked around with our gelato towards the Neptune Statue at Piazza Signoria. In the Piazza we heard music playing and walked towards it. There was a man playing really good flute. So we stopped and listened for a while. He finished at 9:30 though (we got there about 9:25) so we got up and walked some more. We went through the Uffizi Gallery Corridor, and reached the Arno. Down the street was the Ponte Vecchio (oldest bridge in the city). So we had to go check it out. On the bridge was a band, so we sat and listened to that for a while.

We even explored the other side of the Arno a little bit. Across the river it is a lot less touristy and we don’t stick out like Americans quite so much. Of course we will never blend in, but you feel a little less like a sore thumb over there. We came back to the Ponte Vecchio and found that a girl from our school had already found an Italian man! They were sitting on the bridge listening to the band. Geez! In the first weekend!

On the walk back we found a woman singing accompanied by a man playing accordion over by the Piazza Della Republica. This is the piazza with a large gate from the old Roman days. And when I saw it’s large I am not kidding. From there we found a restaurant that plays live music and has dancing! Definitely want to go back there! We continued our wander and found people drawing in chalk on the sidewalk. There were 3 of them making recreations of these amazing works of Art! I took a picture of one of them.

From there we found a bronze statue that people rub for luck or put a coin in to make a wish. We weren’t sure exactly what so I did both to be safe.

Friday night was one of my favorite nights so far in Europe, I really felt like I was more than a tourist, that I have a reason to be in Europe, and that for the next 8 months Florence is my home too. I had a great time wandering around Florence and seeing everything. It was so much better than going to a bar full of Americans. However there were a few run-ins with Italian

creepers…

Incident 1: attempted robbery

Walking near the Duomo I had my purse on my left shoulder. Some reached out and grabbed my right arm. If my purse had been on my other arm, he probably would have taken it, or tried to. Always keep a tight hold on your purse.

Incident 2: do not tell random people where you live

Also near the Duomo, someone from behind asked if anyone of us speaks Italian. I told him that we have been learning for three days. We had a little conversation in Italian with beginner phrases (how are you, things like that). Then he asked where I lived. Not a good idea. We turned around and walked the other direction.

Incident 3: no eye contact!!

Sitting on the Ponte Vecchio, listening to the band playing I was looking around at everything and I accidentally made eye contact with some guy. So he came over and sat down next to me. He asked me questions in a mix of Italian and English and I didn’t really know what to say and I wanted him to go away. My friend asked him if he knew where to get a good cannoli. He just pointed down the street and told us it was that way. Now, we aren’t stupid and we know the bakeries aren’t open that late. Then he put his arm around me and wanted to take me to get a cannoli. I didn’t know if he wanted to steal my purse or feel me up or what. Seeing the distress, my friends and I got up and left. Goodbye Creepy Man!

Saturday I got a cell phone (001.39.348.150.1608 to call from the States and it’s free for me!). Then I went out to lunch at a restaurant by San Lorenzo. Had a glass of wino with lunch, but it wasn’t very good, I had spaghetti carbonara for the meal and that was delicious! I also had a salad. A green salad here means a bowl of lettuce with oil and vinegar on the side for €4. I have learned to love oil and vinegar salads, but €4 is a lot for basically a bowl of lettuce.

On the weekend all the streets by the church of San Lorenzo are filled to bursting with little stands selling tourist shirts, leather things, purses, paintings, belts, scarves, all sorts of things. But you have to be careful in Italy. If you buy something and don’t get a receipt you can be fined for tax evasion because that business is probably not paying their taxes! So when you see the fake purses and knock-off sunglasses on the street, do NOT buy them! The fine for counterfeit products is really steep. Never buy something from someone who looks like they can pack up and run from the police in about 3 seconds. Here's a little something I found these for sale at the market. I think they are bike shorts.

Sunday (today) I was at the Piazza Della Republica and there was like a women’s bike race going on. So we stayed and watched it a little bit. I got a handout and there were teams from all over the world (America, Asia, Europe etc.) racing. So it must be a big deal in the world of women’s cycling. The best part though was the band that playing in the Piazza before the racers got there. There was a group of about 6 men dressed like lumberjacks playing instruments. There was a clarinet, accordion, some others I didn’t recognize and my favorite, the man playing the saw! He had a saw tied to his shoe and held the other end in his hand. He used the other hand to play with a (I assume) violin bow.

Iam curious as to what bikes the racers where using. The race went through 3 cities and was over 100km. City streets are usually cobblestone and very old, making the skinny tires of a road bike seem hard to manage. But what else can you use in a race? Maybe they have special cobblestone tires? Maybe?

As for school:

I haven’t had much homework yet, hence why I have had the extra time to write these nice long blogs. I love learning Italian but my class is mostly focused grammar and not vocabulary building so that gets annoying. I am taking Operations and Management from the same professor and he canceled class last week (but still e-mail us homework assignments) and I already don’t like him. Introduction to Florence is fun, Professor Carrara took us on a walking tour of Florence last week and this week we are going to the Archeological Museum. We have a tour every Wednesday. I’m most excited to go into the Uffizi Gallery and San Marco. I also have an economics class on Monday nights, but I haven’t been to it yet since we started school on Tuesday.

Next weekend is the trip to the Isle of Elba! (I hear we can rent Vespas there!)

Weekend after that I’m off to Cinque Terre!

Then the coast of Southern Italy (Sorrento, Amalfi, Pompeii, Capri)