A week in the life...

Ciao miei amici Americani!

It has been one week and two days since I first set foot on Florentine soil. In some ways, those nine days have been one of the shortest of my life, and in some ways, they have been the longest.

I have done so much and been so busy. Between getting my permiso (which allows me to legally live in Florence while I am studying…a good thing to have), meeting and moving with my host family, learning how the bus system works, and trying to keep up in Italian 2, it has been hard to find time even to sleep. Well, that’s a lie (slightly). I have actually slept super well since I moved in with Anna (my host mom!) and her family (Agata, her daughter, and Andrea, her son, yes son, who are both in university as well as her mother, who is to be called nonna who walks around the house mumbling and says Bella! Bella! Bellisima! every time Leslie or I walk into the room). I’ve probably been sleeping so well since I’ve been so busy, but it’s time to move on from the sleeping thing. You don’t care if I’ve been sleeping well or not. You want to hear about ITALY! So Italy I will tell you about…

Italy is still amazing. The food continues to tempt me into obesity, the buildings continue to astound me with their beauty and history, the language continues to challenge me and push me to learn more because it is so beautiful, everything in this country continues to make my eyes wide with awe. On Tuesday Jodi (our program director) took us on a brief walking tour of Florence. We took a bus up to la Chiesa di San Miniato and then walked back to the hotel from there. San Miniato is just outside the old city walls and provides amazing panoramic views of the city (as shown in the picture above). La Chiesa di San Miniato is the oldest building in the city. Construction on it began in the middle of the 11^th century. It was built in honor of San Miniato, who was a martyr for the faith and who, after being beheaded carried his own head to the top of a hill where he finally was laid to rest. Strange, I know. But it is a beautiful Romanesque style granite building with mosaics both inside and out. It is very unique because it combines several different architectural styles from regions all over the eastern world (sorry, I have to throw in a little art history lesson somewhere…I mean, that is the reason I am here).

Once we had a lecture about the church and saw the whole inside, we started our descent into the city. Once we got down to the city, we made our way to Fiume Arno (the river that runs through the city) and walked along it until we reached Ponte Vecchio. We crossed to the other side while looking at the very temptingly displayed (and very highly priced) fine jewelry. After getting across the river, we headed towards the Uffizi and walked past it into Piazza della Signorina. This is the famous piazza that is right outside Palazza Vecchio and that houses all of the statues of Perceus and Zeus and all those guys. I took TONS of pictures, which I promise to edit and put on facebook soon. Actually, I think I already did. I don’t remember. Struggles? Me? Never.

Moving on…Saturday (yesterday) was the best day of my life. Linguaviva (the school I’m taking Italian at) chartered a bus to Cinque Terre. Everyone go there. Now. It is legitimately the most beautiful place I have ever experienced. Cinque Terre means “five lands” and so, naturally, Cinque Terre is made up of five cities that are nestled into the sides of mountains and have cliffs that drop down into the ocean. And yes, it is every bit as amazing as it sounds. We walked between a few of the cities, not all of them, and had lunch, swam in the Mediterranean, drank some wine, ate some gelato, all those Italian things that Italian people do. It was glorious. I made new friends (hurray!!!) and so I spent the day with them. Chiara is from Sweden, Charlotte is from Holland (the country, not the city all you Hope people are currently in). Geraldine is from some northern European country (I can’t remember), Arne is from Sweden, Gai is from Israel, Bruno is from Brazil, and then Mike is from Aspen and Marco is from San Fransisco. Pretty diverse group of people, huh? But they are all so wonderful. And Elisabetta, the Linguaviva teacher who went with us and was our tour guide, is my favorite person in the whole world. She makes sound effects when she talks and uses tons of those ever-present Italian gestures and she is basically just out of control. I believe at one point she suggested drinking Absolut Vodka while we were jumping off the cliffs into the Mediterranean. Not like, right before or after we jumped, during our jump. Like make a toast as you’re flying through the air towards the water. But she was kidding. I think.

In Cinque Terre, we walked down Via dell’Amore. The street of love. It was terribly romantic. People had graffitied all the walls (it was like a tunnel that ran right along the ocean on one side and had legit mountain rising up a hundred feet or more on the other side) with their names and their anniversaries and words like amore (love) and sempre (always) and other such words that have to do with eternal love. This is also the place where people get locks and lock them to the fence or the conveniently placed gates and then they throw the key into the ocean which signifies that they will love each other forever. Incredibly romantic. There were thousands of locks. Maybe Colin and I will get to do that when he comes (awwww!!!).

Anyways, the perfect way to top of the perfect day is to go out with some good friends. Can I get an Amen! What? That was weird. Sorry. So, getting back on track…last night after returning from Cinque Terre I had one of the best meals Anna has cooked yet: pot roast and rice and cucumber and tomato salad. It was delicious. Then I showered and got ready for a big night out on the town. I met up with all my new friends at the Duomo and we bought a couple bottles of wine and went to sit and drink them in the grassy area outside of Santa Maria Novella. We just chatted and hung out. A few of the girls got bored so they made us go walk around. We wandered for far too long before I decided that I wanted to go home. I really didn’t want to pay for a cab, so Mike (from Aspen) and Arne (from Sweden) agreed to walk me back to my house. It was quite the adventure. We got lost several times and realized that when you get lost, a half hour walk becomes an hour and a half walk. Whoops. But we did get here eventually and I went to bed pretty early (about 1:30) and got ELEVEN hours of sleep, praise the Lord. I desperately needed that sleep.

Now that I am rested and happy and loving this country even more than I did two days ago, I am spending some time writing to you, you lucky dogs. Today I need to go to the supermercato (supermarket) and buy food so that I can pack lunches for school this week and stop spending money. I also need to prepare for the presentation I have in class tomorrow. It should be big fun. I hope you all are well and happy. I hope America is fabulous. I know Italy is :)

I love you all!

A pronto!