06‘Terzo Viaggo- Roma’
‘Third Trip- Rome!’
This was a biggie!!! We had all been planning this trip from the very beginning. First, because it’s ROME, obviously we need to go. Second, because we get reimbursed for train and museum tickets, since it’s a required destination for our Art History class. Third, because Rome is home to a huge concert/festival every year on the first of May called (appropriately) Primo Maggio. Fourth, we had already cleared it with our Italian professor to cancel Friday’s class so we could have an extra day (I also don’t have classes on Thursdays, therefore it was ideal for me!) So, the date and time and place had been set for weeks, and we were all really excited.
Though all but 3 of our entire group in Florence would eventually end up in Rome, we arrived in a sort of piecemeal fashion. Aurelia, Cecilia and I took a train Thursday morning at 11am so we could make the most of our Roman weekend. The train took 4 hrs, and I slept, naturally. :) We got to Rome and Aurelia, who is INCREDIBLY detail-oriented, had spent the train ride making an explicit list of what we should see and when and in which order. We got off the train and she drove us like sled dogs for the next 6 hours- through the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, La Via Aurelia (for her), La Chiesa Cecilia (for Cecilia), the tomb of Santo Stefano (for me??), the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain- until we collapsed in a basement restaurant near Trevi for dinner around 10pm. We hadn’t even gone by our hostel first (“NO TIME”, she screeched) to drop our bags off, so once again I was carting around days worth of clothing in my big black purse. I don’t know if it’ll make it our of Italy alive… but it’s served me so well! After the restaurant, we were so exhausted that we just couldn’t bear to walk the 2 more miles to our hostel, so we experimented with the Metro (one of man’s greatest creations!). It dropped us of one block from the hostel, thank goodness.
This hostel was much more of a dormitory than our previous experiences, but it was definitely more than sufficient. The only problem was that it only accepted cash for the full payment (something not stated online where we paid 10% down for our reservation). That sure was a hassle. Oh well.
The next morning we woke up at 7am to fit in (as per Aurelia’s schedule) 5 churches and 4 monuments before our 10:30am entrance time at the Vatican. Around 10am we were running late, still around 1.5 miles from St. Peters/Vatican, so Cecilia and Aurelia started power-walking. Remember, I mentioned previously that these two are notorious for using their extremely long legs to walk exremely fast. Well, Cecilia is 5’11” and has the longest legs imaginable. She walked as fast as she could, which resulted in Aurelia jogging to keep up…needless to say, I RAN those 1.5 miles to the Vatican. The other half of our group was waiting for us in St. Peter’s Square and saw us arrive…. Cecilia power-walking, Aurelia jogging, and me sprinting the final 100 yards or so. The were cracking up when we finally reached them- I’m sure we did look ridiculous! I was certainly out of breath for a long time! (Again, and as always, great exercise!)
Thus, we entered the Vatican. I knew that it was huge, extensive, and what have you… but really, the sheer size of it stunned me. For example, we wandered through passageways and hallways for literally an hour before reaching the Sistine Chapel. On our way back we stopped in all the rooms to observe so it took us even longer. The Chapel was amazing, just as we’d expected, but it was also really crowded (as we’d also expected haha)
‘Secondo Viaggo- Siena/San Gimignano’
‘Second Trip- Siena/San Gimignano’
Two weekends ago, Aurelia and I decided to go to somewhere a little…. closer, for our next trip. Siena is only an hour into the Tuscan hills by train, so we opted for that. Scattered around Siena are multiple ‘hilltowns’… tiny villages that still retain their Medieval feel, and we’d heard that San Gimignano (known for its towers) was particularly gorgeous.
We set off at 8:00am Saturday morning and were trotting around Siena by 9:30. Aurelia and I were joined by Griffin and Cecilia… the small number was excellent for many reasons. We got to know each other so so well, plus booking hostels is easy with such an even number…plus, Griffin is short! This is actually a huge deal, because when Aurelia and Cecilia walk (they’re both tall), I literally have to jog to catch up! This way, Griffin and I could speedwalk and still semi-keep pace, haha.
So, some info about Siena: Siena retains a ward-centric culture from medieval times. Each ward (contrada) is represented by an animal or mascot, and has its own boundary and distinct identity. Ward rivalries are most rampant during the annual horse race (Palio) in the Piazza del Campo. So banners of each ward/neighborhood can be seen flying in its respective area.
Interestingly, if any of you have seen the James Bond Quantum of Solace movie, the opening scene takes place during a horse race, in a city center…. guess where that is? Yup! Siena! I literally walked in the same place as Daniel Craig! Haha! Anyway, Siena is really small and well-designed. I loved it. We learned the city easily and there were hardly any tourists at this time of year, so it really retained the Italian feel. I have to say that I ate better than I ever had in my life during that day in Siena. I’ve even included a picture of my gnocchi with tomato sauce for proof.
We saw tons of stuff in tiny little Siena. The Cathedral of St. Catherine is there, and her actual head is preserved in a reliquary box. Sweet! I really like stuff like that… Then we wandered to the Duomo of that town (there’s a Duomo in every town.. the name given to the biggest church), where we explored the Baptistry, the Crypts and the Civic museum. Then we climbed the 830 steps to the top of the belltower. The passageways were SO tiny… it was a struggle for us with only purses/backpacks. Larger people just would NOT have managed! At the top, we pantingly danced a celebratory dance, and were interrupted by the huge bells right above our head chiming 7pm. We all fell to the ground in panic, and also from the sheer force of the noise. Later, when we climbed down, the security guards told us they’d had a huge laugh over it. :)
Our hostel in Siena was incredible. Frescoes on the ceilings, amazingly comfortable beds, a HUGE breakfast in the morning. It was definitely a steal at only 25 Euro per night per person!! The next morning we woke up and saw a couple of sights we’d missed the day before, and then we hopped on a bus through the hills to San Gimignano.
This town is even smaller than Siena, with the total population numbering at only 7,000. We hadn’t anticipated that there would only be one bus from SG back to Firenze, but because it was a Sunday, that was the case. So we unfortunately only had 3 hrs to explore before we needed to catch the bus home. We made the most of those three hours, climbing all the 14 towers with gelato in hand!
We got home in time for Sunday supper which, as always, was spectacular. Another successful weekend excursion!!
‘Primo Viaggo- Cinque Terre’
‘First Trip- Cinque Terre’
Yay! After 3 weeks getting to know Florence, a group of us decided it was time to fly the coop. As our destination, we chose one of the most popular tourist destinations in Central, coastal Italy: Cinque Terre. Cinque is Italian for the number 5, and Terre signifies ‘lands’. Not unexpectedly, CT is a collection of 5 small, seaside towns in Liguria (the region). 9 of us decided to go… all girls. We have a shortage of boys in our Florence group to begin with, and somehow none of them ended up coming with us on our CT adventure. No matter, it was a wonderful bonding experience for all of us girls.
Our viaggo started Friday afternoon, right after we finished Italian class. Because I didnt think to bring an actual backpack to Italy, I had packed everything I would need for three days into one large, black purse. This would become a constant source of amusement for all of us on the hike… little did we know. :) Our train was 4 hrs long, though it passed in the blink of an eye for me (I slept, naturally). When we got off the train, we stepped into this quaint small-town atmosphere heavy with the smell of salt. Our hostel directions had said to go straight down the main street…. we were worried that this was really vague, until we saw there there WAS only one street, and that only the generous would call it ‘Main’. About 500 meters away, we discovered the office of our hostel, guarded by a snoozing alley cat (the owner informed us she was called either ‘Sketchy’ or ‘La Giocanda’… the later means The Mona Lisa… two very diverse meanings!). The owner himself was a character- a middle-aged Italian man, tanned from the seaside sun, with a lisp that would have made even perfect English unintelligible. Luckily we navigated our way through payment and were shown to our sparse but homey rooms.
Not content to pass the evening idle, we set out to walk the path between our town (#1) and the next (#2). Of the 4 legs of trail between the 5 towns of Cinque Terre, 1 leg is called ‘La Via Dell’Amore’… ‘The Road of Love’. This portion is only 2 miles long, nicely paved, with great lookout points, …..and thousands of locks. What? Locks? YES. Apparently, it’s encouraged that visitors to La Via Dell’Amore, “lock their love” so there are tons of locks with ‘Bob+Julie’ or ‘Yujin+Anju’ or whatever scrawled on the lock face dotting the guardrails, lamposts, even the local vegetation (no lie i saw a lock that’d been placed around the base of an agave cactus… the cactus had grown around it). We all wished for a lock, or at least a reason to NEED a lock (haha), and pressed on. Once in town #2, we got gelato and watched the magnificent sunset. It was still pretty light after that and we thought about walking to town #3, but then decided to save that for the morning and head back to town #1 for a long dinner. Typical Italian style!
On our way home, it started drizzling and the last rays of sun kept catching the drops. It made us catch our breaths, that’s for sure. After wandering around our homebase town for a while, we found an awesome and quaint restaurant right by the water. Their seafood was cheaper than other meats (obviously because of proximity to ocean), and I was so thrilled. They had listed ‘Linguine with Lobster’ but next to it read: Minimum 2 portions. Sad day! However, when the waiter came around, I chatted with him a little while we ordered appetizers and drinks in Italian (of course)…. thus, when he returned to take our meal orders, I sweetly inquired, “Could I pleaseeeee have just one portion of this? Is it possible??” To which he replied, “Only if you keep it our little secret.”
I’m great at keeping secrets. I ate lobster pasta for dinner.
The next day, we woke up at 8:00am to get an early start. With a spring in our step we set off to get breakfast- cappuccino+pastry=best breakfast ever. Then we headed back down the Via dell’Amore from yesterday. Today it was PACKED with tourists… all of whom seemed completely incapable of walking faster than 2mph. No matter, we’d seen it all before (and in better lighting!). We pressed forward.
Interestingly, after town #2, the path turned into dirt. In that it was no longer paved with a guardrail. We should have taken this as foreshadowing… Anyway, more on that later. This new, natural trail was slightly curvier but still ran along the coast. So we made it another 2 miles, to town #3, with little problems and only slightly out of breath. We grabbed gelato (again) and set off for town #4… as we walked to the trail head, we noticed that everyone exiting in our direction was very sweaty, breathing hard and had that flushed, blotchy look of someone post-physically-exerting-activity. Undeterred we set off. We soon realized that this path was very different, no longer were we walking on packed gravel, but dirt with rocks imbedded… and at the first turn, we were met with a series of steps cut into sheer rock. Yeahhh…… and it only got harder. 3 miles and nearly 3 hrs later (insanely steep and graded, so we had to go slowly) we made it to town #4. Everyone was drenched with sweat and starving. I ate a whole pizza for lunch, some of the other girls ate even more. Keep in mind we have quite a few sorority girls on this trip. Think of how hungry they must have been to give in and eat an ENTIRE pizza. :D Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuch a great workout!
Even though we were exhausted, we were determined to tackle the last (and steepest) leg. Trudging slightly, we started off up the hill. 2 hours later, we’d made it!!! During the last 30 minutes, it had started to rain, so we slowed down considerably to avoid slipping, but it was incredibly beautiful nonetheless. Finally at the final town, we settled in under an awning for iced coffees and gelato. It was an absolutely amazing first viaggo… and we all slept during train ride home.
It actually took me a while to fall asleep on the train, just because I kept thinking of what I’d just accomplished. Sure, it was a tough hike… even our two varsity athletes could attest to that, but it was better than that for me. I couldn’t help but think it was the most awesome thing I’d ever done. Unlike my SPOT backpacking trip, where I lagged at the tail end, slowed by massive blisters and struggling with any sort of steps, during this hike, I was consistently one of the leaders…. even racing up stairs with some people, everyone was amazing by my ability to hike with a huge purse instead of a backpack, and we all arrived together at the final town… no one was slow, and no one opted for the easy train between towns. For me, though, the coolest part was that no one expected anything less that this out of me. No one was surprised when I bounded up stairs or carried someone else’s water bottle and camera because their neck hurt. No one was surprised when I ran from the trail exit to the sign marking our arrival in the last town. No one looked over at me when I exclaimed, “SERIOUSLY????” after we found a map that explained how we’d just hiked 9 miles, and that the last two legs were labeled as “very difficult”. As you’ve probably guessed, I hadn’t told any of those girls about my medical background. I had been prepared to, if I needed to stop at any point, but I never did. So as I rode the train back, I felt more accomplished in those moments that I ever have before or since.
Talk about a great first trip. :)
‘Avanzi’
‘Leftovers’
First, I should apologize! My plan for this blog was to update it daily. I have a journal that I write in every day here, and I thought I could just do the same with my online blog to share with you guys. I definitely hadn’t anticipated not having Internet access at the house…and in my early days here in Italy, I just thought that I would update every day when I went to school. Soon, though, I realized that the point of studying abroad is to be out around, and submerged in the culture… so I really only spend my classtime at the Stanford Center. It’s made internet time very precious and hard to find; I normally only get to check my email and reply to urget messages. However, this weekend my roommate, Aurelia (whose laptop gets internet!), is headed on a trip and I’m staying here. She’s left her computer with me and I can spend a lot of time finally updating! To give you guys a couple of points of reference for my past month in Italia, here’s a rough schedule of what I was up to (each will get its own post):
- I’ve taken 3 big trips: Cinque Terre, Siena/San Gimignano, and Rome
- More trips are planned: Sardegna, Lucca, Barcelona, hopefully Venice
- I’ve had some culture clashes (Coffee etiquette) and some surprising acceptances (People think my first language is Spanish or some other romance language… I don’t have an American accent!)
- I’m making money! (Working for the Stanford Center)
- My clothing style has evolved (bare legs are a NO-NO!)
- I am now an expert on two very Italian dishes (Gelato and Tiramisu)
- I’ve explored all over and around Florence (someone please buy me an apartment in Fiesole)
- I’ve made friends with a lot of Italians (love my host family, and sadly no fiance yet…)
- I’m really good at school! (Especially feminist theory in Italian cinema?!)
- I eat too much, walk too much and thank goodness it evens out!
Day 6
Today was Wednesday, and it will for future weeks be my really full day. I will have ‘High Renaissance and the Maniera’ from 10-1, my Italian class from 2-3:15 and then ‘Becoming an Artist in Tuscany’ from 3:30-6:30. Whew! However, this week both of the art classes weren’t meeting. Because of the large time slot available for everyone this morning, Stanford paid for us to have a cooking class! We spent 3 hrs there- 2 hrs cooking and 1 hr eating! Everyone learned to make spinach ravioli, meat’-filled zucchini and tiramisu. The tiramisu was probably the best thing I’ve ever eaten… and It was so simple! I have the recipe book to show everyone when I come home. The class was super fun- we even made out own pasta from scratch!
There are a lot of really fun pictures on Facebook from the lesson that I’ll have to find a way to send you guys. The best part was that after we made and cooked everything… we got to EAT it! The other part of the kitchen/cooking lesson area was an INSANELY nice restaurant, so we went there and ate our spoils. :)
I sat next to Michael-Jordan, the football coach guy and we had a fantastic conversation. I like him very much. He’s a super interesting individual. Our table was just generally cool. I feel like I’m really getting to know people now, after the first few days when everyone was jet-lagged and feeling distinctly displaced.
Cooking class ended at 2:00… and our Italian class STARTED at 2:15, so we literally ran back through the winding alleys of Firenze then up the 8 flights of stairs to arrive in class breathless and sweaty. Luckily, it was a good class- we listened to songs in Italian and talked about uniquely Florentine customs, etc.
The day ended early for Aurelia and me- we went to sleep right after dinner again. :) I’ll have been here one week tomorrow!!!
Day 5
I LOVE MY LANGUAGE PARTNER!! Daniele is the coolest person ever. Tonight he and Aurelia and her language partner and two other language partners and about 5 friends went out for an aperitivo (a social drink). It’s the most common way for young Italians here in Florence to chill with their buds on a weekday, when no one really goes out. We went to this awesome little place and sat outside under heat lamps. First though, Daniele came to pick up Aurelia and me at our apartment- not on his motorino (scooter) unfortunately, because we were also picking up two other girls. He did promise me a ride, however! Anyway, so as I mentioned previously this kid is 22, in med school, has fantastic style, is a dancer, has an earring, speaks like 4 languages, etc. Needless to say, we became best friends immediately. :) Both he and I have the same sense of humor, and that is evident despite any language barriers. After the other two language partners left, he stayed with us girls just to chat, teaching us new words and other awesome things. Then, as we were walking back to the car, he dropped the bomb. The girls were explaining how we all wanted an Italian man, and he mentioned that he had many Italian guy friends to whom he should introduce us. Of course, Aurelia then mentioned that the same would go for him- if he had his eye on any American girls, he should let us know. After a beat, he says, “I have to tell ya’ll something….” (I taught him ya’ll and he loves it.)….”I have a boyfriend,” he continues. CRAPPPPP. I mean, I already subconsciously knew, but I was still hoping against hope that he was straight. Sad day. Oh well. Anyway, he asked me to coffee later this week. I love hanging out with him… I feel more like the person I am with my guy friends at home when I’m joking with him in Italian.
Anyway, that wasn’t the only thing I did today! I also had my first class! And my first panino (sandwich… in America, we incorrectly call it a ‘panini’ which is plural for ‘panino’)! And I talked to my parents by email/chat for the first time, finally! This morning, Aurelia and I got up and ate/cleaned up breakfast… then we decided to go to the supermarket to buy school supplies. Everything is smaller here, and more expensive- so I bought 3 tiny notebooks. Then we went to the Center, where we spent 3 hrs on the internet, making up for the time lost EVERY EVENING at our house. It really is a shockingly isolating life, not having internet. After that, we all went out to get i panini for lunch- they were SO tasty. We got them from this place called ‘Pino’s’…. it has a real name but everyone says that instead. The guy who makes the sandwiches is Pino, and he makes them so well that it’s only fair!
After lunch I had my second real class!! Cinema! I think it’s going to be really good- the class is taught in only Italian, and remarkably I don’t have any problem understanding. We’ll be examining the portrayal of women in Italian cinema over the years. For next week, our assignment is to read and article and watch 2 movies. Not too shabby, movies for homework!
After class, a group of us wondered around and found this amazing gelato place called Dei Neri. I got a cone with Straciatella (vanilla with dark chocolate chunks) and Frutti di Bosco (berries- so raspberry/blackberry mix). It was incredible. I came to Italy not worried about my potential gelato consumption… I never really liked ice cream… but now I think I have reason to be concerned. Gelato is SO different from ice cream. It’s so much lighter (made with skim milk and ice) and so fruity and so culturally important! (The latter is what I will tell myself when I eat it.) Either way, it was an awesome snack.
After gelato, Aurelia and I took the bus home and napped (residual jet lag) until dinner at 8:30. Ale had made pasta from scratch and this awesome caprese salad. Then we had tons of prosciutto and cheeses, followed by Italian cookies. Tasty! Aurelia and I alternated showering and sleeping…again…before we went out with the language partners.
Day 5 = success
Day 4
It’s 11:58pm!!! So early!!! I guess I need an early night after my string of early ‘morning’ bedtimes, although I’m not actually tired enough yet to sleep. It’s completely beyond me how, but the days keep getting better and better here in Italia. I feel like at some point I’ll have to reach the awesomeness threshold, that this just isn’t infinitely sustainable…Regardless- today was wonderful. After our crazy-late night yesterday, Aurelia and I ended up waking up at ONE O’CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON. I have never in my life slept that late for any reason. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I’m really attached to my bed now. I sleep sooo well in it. Either way, we woke up, showered and ate collazione (breakfast) at 1:30. The Ales and the girls had gone to the mountains for the day, so no one was waiting on us to get up… that was good. Still, we felt so bad about sleeping through half the day, that we did the dishes and cleaned up breakfast- something that was specifically stated not to be our job. Then we got dressed and decided to explore our neighborhood.
The suburb of Florence in which we live is very residential. There are no foreigners apart from us here, so it’s a wonderful place to experience the real Italy. No American college student (drunk or not) in his right mind would wander over an hour’s walk away from the city center. Purtroppo (unfortunately), since it was Sunday, none of the shops were open, but we still discovered a lot of places to visit during the week. After a while we happened upon a public park. It was awesome- old people were gossiping on the benches, parents were pushing babies in strollers, young kids were playing soccer and teenagers were leaning on fences trying to look cool. Some things are the same, no matter the location or language. :) Aurelia and I had a blast playing on the swing set and playground, and we took pictures of the things scribbled on the wood. There were tons of ‘Ti amo’s and Italian expletives, and the odd mangled American phrase…but everything was about love, which was cool. Such a different culture here; so amorous.
After the park, we made our way to a bus station and took our regular route into town. This time I’d forgotten my map, so we decided to just wander and hope our memories served us well. They did! No matter where we explored, we didn’t get lost once! Really, the only things Aurelia and I ended up doing in town were getting an aperitivo (drink before dinner; coffees for us) and buying some shoes. I now am the proud owner of two pairs of real Italian leather shoes!!!! (Obviously I am not buying ANYTHING else for myself for at least a month.) The first pair are black knee-high boots. (For those of you who know how much I wear my brown ones, you’ll see why this was a wise purchase.) The others are flat, brown oxford shoes with patterns hole-punched in them. (I’ll upload a pic so it doesn’t sound like I bought a kid’s butchered art project.) After the shoes, we managed to catch the bus home just in time for dinner.
Supper was great. It was still one of our first real meals with the family, but I was already feeling a lot more comfortable. I joke often with Alessandro, who reminds me of a more wizened Chris Anderson, or an Italian Dr. Crawford… both of whom I love. Alessandra is a slightly more sarcastic version of my own Mom, so obviously we get along well. The girls are SO energetic and awesome. Anyway, we ate pasta, cheese, sausage and this other eggish dish that was wonderful. Dessert was le fragole con panna (strawberries with cream). Alessandro made the cream from SCRATCH. Mannnnnnn, it was tasty.
As we were cleaning the table, Alessandro asked again if we’d been able to get the internet working, and we said no, so he and Aurelia went off to experiment with her computer. I stayed in the kitchen and drank tea with Alessandra. She is SO cool. I realized how much it helps to talk one-on-one with her… when Aurelia (who’s knowledge of tenses is greater, but who’s facility with the language/pronunciation is less so) is around, I think I subconsciously use her as a crutch. I use the time when she is speaking to work out what to say next, and when I’m doing the speaking, I don’t try as hard cause I know that she doesn’t understand me unless I speak slowly. Alone with Ale, she and I had this rapid-fire convo for about 30 minutes, seriously… during which I could ACTUALLY feel myself improving. I still made tons of mistakes, but she’d correct me and then I’d keep rambling. Towards the end, she told me something ridiculously flattering. She said that with practice I could sound like a born and bred Florentine, and that my accent was impeccable already… all I needed was to master conjugations and vocabulary; that because of the speed with which I speak and the way in which I enunciate, I would definitely be fluent by the end of this quarter. I was SO flattered. That’s one thing to hear from a professor dealing with Americans IN America… but completely different to hear from someone who’s always lived in the foreign country. I had so much fun chatting with her.
After we gave up on the internet for today, I moseyed into the TV room to see what the girls were up to. They were watching a Discovery Channel episode about dinosaurs. They’re obsessed with dinosaurs. Giulia (the 7 yr old) came over, grabbed my hand, and pulled me down onto the couch beside her. She then proceeded to climb into my lap and snuggle. Every now and then she’d make velociraptor noises or tell me something about dinosaurs. I was insanely thrilled. Plus, I LOVE cuddling. I felt so maternal. Or big-sister-al. Whichever. Then Martina (the 10 yr old) began to feel left out, so she sidled up also. By the end of the program, Giulia had turned upside down so her legs were on my right shoulder, and Martina had her head on Giulia’s stomach, which was in my lap. Although I pretended not to notice, I saw Alessandro walk by, glance in, call Alessandra over, stand for a minute and then walk away. I can’t be sure, but I feel like they might like me even more now. I sure love their family.
When the girls went to bed, Aurelia and I stayed to watch some news with Alessandro, and then we headed to bed too. Now I’m curled up in a bed that already feels like my own, in an apartment that already feels like home, and absolutely the only care I have in the world is that I REALLY REALLY miss talking to my family. Because have no internet at the house yet, and the only access to it I’ve had has come from the Stanford Center, my online time has been seriously short. When I’m at the Center, it’s for a meeting, and that’s it… I’ve had no free time there apart from two 10 min episodes. Tomorrow hopefully that will change, as classes start and I’ll just hang around forever to spend hours on the computers. Yay! I’m really excited for classes and for speaking more Italian. :) :) :)
Day 3
Since I always seem to start my entries by indicating how ridiculously late it is/was at the time of writing, I see no reason to discontinue that trend. Right now it’s 4:15am, and Aurelia and I just got back from a club. Yeah, a club. I have now experienced Firenze’s nightlife- and it was great! (But more about that later.) Today was a short day with regard to academics. We only had our cultural orientation (here we learned how to address elders, professors, grandparents, etc formally… since it’s different in Florence, and where we discussed our homestays). The whole process lasted about an hour, and then Stanford paid for us all to get gelato. Yay! Free stuff! I got to spend 10 min on the internet this morning.. which is a lot. I looked through the pictures of the boys’ spring break in Miami. I promptly got homesick and luckily was saved only by delicious blackberry cookies and a chat about Florentine slang. All my friends here think that my boys are really attractive, and asked where I’ve been hiding all the cute Stanford boys. :) I realized that I really miss how my boys smell, ridiculously. Their rooms at school have really distinctive smells that I never paid attention to before, and now I miss it….not that it’s actually… pleasant, haha. Let’s just say i wouldn’t want to bottle Eau de Varun+Cyrus, necessarily. Hahahaha.
After the gelato, Aurelia, Alysha, Cameron, Ben, Derek and I (I’ll put up a labeled group photo soon) walked about 40 min to an open air market and bought a ton of bread, prosciutto (salami), formaggio (cheese) and wine. We impressed the stand-owners with our Italian and got sconti (discounts) on our purchases! Then we wandered to a park, sat down, and had a picnic! We met about 8 dogs here… as they kept showing up, likely because of the sweet food. After the picnic, we were all sleepy and retired to our respective houses (for Aurelia and myself this meant a 40 min bus ride, haha) to nap. It was Scott’s, one of the students’, birthdays and he’d made a reservation for 18 of us at one of the tastiest restaurants in Firenze. It was an awesome excuse to dress up!
At the restaurant, Alysha and I decided to share (she is my food buddy for Italy, since I no longer have Varun to ensure I keep on track with my gastronomical variety. Boo.)… we got an appetizer, salad, entree, dessert and two shots of espresso. It may sound like a lot, but remember that everything here comes in courses, so all of the portions were small, and it was the perfect amount. Afterwards, Scott’s language partner showed up to take us out clubbing. Keep in mind that Scott is NOT the typical partying type…. he’s much more like a professor in training. (Example: He wore a button-up shirt, and argyle sweater vest out to the discotecha last night.) Since this is his second quarter here, he’s given himself the de facto title of tour guide, translator and all around mom to us newbies. The club scene hasn’t really been his forte, but he wanted to go out for his birthday. And we all wanted to help him celebrate in style. :) The clubs were exactly as you’d expect, but definitely not something I’d experienced before. SO fun! SO much dancing!! All of us stuck together and the guys were great about making sure strange Italian (or other) men didn’t snatch the girls from behind in some attempt to dance with us. It already feels like a big, weird family with these kids. Aurelia, Biel, Alysha, Gigi, Scott and I stayed the latest, and all left together around 3am. First we walked Gigi home, then the most hilarious thing happened. Aurelia (who’d worn heels, and had BEEN wearing them for about 8 hours at this point) finally had exhausted the ability of her feet to sustain her….but she didn’t want to admit that the reason she was walking so slowly was because she was in so much pain. So Biel made this dramatic display about how he had always heard that it takes a real athlete to walk in heels, and how he wanted to try. He finally convinced her to wear his shoes “for a bit” just so he could “try out the heels”… then he wouldn’t let her put her heels back on (sidenote: Biel not only can walk in heels, but he also did some cartwheels and capoeira for effect).
The whole thing was really sweet, cause Aurelia didnt realize until later that he’d planned it deliberately. Anyway, so he carefully walked barefoot to the taxi stop and then Aurelia and I went home, and Biel and Scott went back to their house. It was a great and very successful night. I think Scott had an awesome birthday. I love everyone here, and I can’t wait to get to know them better over the next 11+ weeks!
