First Week

So it has only been a few days in the city and already I feel  very comfortable.  Here with so many helpful landmarks at one's disposal, it seems impossible to be lost.  Every couple of streets I run into something that looks familiar whether it is a street I have walked down before or one of the many sights I have seen in my art history books.

My first full day was spent meeting other students from my school.  We met the president and founder and went through a list of things to expect of Florence.  After that, one of my roommates and I wandered the streets looking for a better view of the city .  Jokingly, we pointed to one of the hills that surrounds the city and said we would go there.  After crossing the Arno via the Ponte Vecchio, and meandering through the winding streets (avoiding the speeding mopeds that seemed determined to strike us down hah), we stopped.  It was not until we turned to look in the direction from which we came , that we found we had climbed the very hill we had pointed at from across the river! We reached the top (near the Boboli gardens) when the sun was low in the sky and casting dramatic4 shadows over the river and houses..  From there, the whole city lay before us, and it was beautiful.  We had a perfect view of the skyline; the Duomo, the towers, and the buildings that trimmed the Arno.  The river was a greenish color, close to the shade of the statue of liberty.  Of course, we paused here to take may pictures before we descended.

On Friday, we toured the city with a professor.  She briefly showed  us the museums, the churches, and Dante's residence where a man stands everyday and recites Dante's work from memorization (there you go aunt joan!).   We did other errands that day including grocery shopping, phone shopping, and registering with the police.  Florence had passed some interesting laws recently! For example, it is illegal to feed the pigeons, eat while sitting on a stoop, and you can be fined 10,000 euro for buying fake Gucci/Dior/Versaci handbags and such!

Saturday was quite an adventure! It was a warm and clear day and so we decided to climb to the top of the Duomo!  It was a long and dizzying ascent but well worth the 8 euro and panting! :) Here again, we took pictures and remained there about forty minutes just absorbing the scene!  I will definitely be doing that again before I leave!  After that, I had my first real Italian pizza, prosciutto e ananas (ham and pineapple)!  Delicious... Later on that night we went out to a club...you could tell it was a bar/club aimed for americanos/as, but regardless it was fun.  The Italians are quite stylish! That is, except for the man wearing the "Duff" sweatshirt (from the Simpsons).  Those seem rather popular here? 

Ah, well that is all for now... I am in class this week but I will try to write again tomorrow!  Ciao!