First Few Days in Firenze

Where to begin...

After a long day of traveling on the airplane and bus Monday and Tuesday, we arrived in Firenze at 5:00pm. Having slept only four hours on the plane didn't stop me from taking a two hour tour the night we arrived. Ann, a TA here at the university was an awesome guide, turning our "little" tour into a sight-seeing adventure that kept our legs moving.

She took us to a Tabaccheria (a tobacco/smoke shop that also sells bus tickets and stamps), a café, and a farmacia (pharmacy) and led us to the Duomo, Santa Croce and over the Ponte Vecchio.

The Duomo is a famous cathedral set in the centro of Firenze. It took nearly 150 years to build (completed in 1436)! Molto grazie to Filippo Brunelleschi (a famous Florentine architect) for completing the dome portion, which was left unfinished by the designers of the Duomo since they didn't know how to construct a dome. Lesson: have great faith in your Florentine architect predecessors. The cathedral's detail is absolutely amazing, and to think that it was fashioned in an age without technology is mind-boggling.

But before we stood in the middle of the city in awe of the Duomo, Ann showed us the Santa Croce, the principal Franciscan church in Firenze. With sixteen chapels, it is the largest Franciscan church in the world! Brunelleschi was also involved in the design of the Santa Croce, along with one of my favorite Italian Renaissance painters, Giotto. Fun fact of this particular basilica: it is known as the Temple of the Italian Glories since it is the burial place of Michelangelo, Galileo, Marconi (who invented the radio), and other notable Italian philosophers/writers. Unfortunately, in 1966, the Arno River flooded a good portion of Florence, and the water, mud, pollution and heating oil brought severe damage to the interior and posterior of the Santa Croce, taking several decades to repair.

Day 2 - 3

The next two days were non-stop orientation meetings, academic advising, meeting the professors, meeting the students, etc. It felt like I was at freshman orientation all over again. Syracuse University in Florence is actually a beautiful school, situated about halfway from my house and the Duomo. It has this quaint little quad in the back (which gets wifi - yay!) and a pleasant garden in the front.

I met my host family a few days ago and let me tell you, this is going to be an unforgettable experience. I live with an elderly couple (85 and 88) who I call Nonna (grandma) and Nonno (grandfather). Neither Nonna nor Nonno speak any English, so dinners are mostly filled with gestures, smiling and Emily (my roommate) and I trying to speak Italiano the best we can (with a few awkward silences in between). Nonno is pretty quiet for the most part, but he's an extremely comical man. He's got an distinguished nose and really sweet blue eyes. I think his memory is fading because he asks the same series of questions about five times at dinner. Nonna gets a little frustrated with that and usually jabs him in his side.

Nonna is a wonderful woman! Even with the language barrier, I can honestly say she's one of the kindest, most generous women I've ever met. She puts breakfast out for us every morning, does our laundry and cooks a feast each night for dinner. We ALWAYS have pasta for our first course. The main meal is usually a meat paired with vegetables and salad. Last night we had tortellini soup and then salmon and shrimp with artichokes, broccoli and bread (with fresh olive oil). I know, it's A LOT of food! Mom, you would love her cooking!!

During dinner, Emily and I usually finish off the caraffa by ourselves. Nonna doesn't drink a lot and Nonno only drinks il vino.

Funny dinner moments so far:

1. I tried to practice my Italiano on Nonno and told him he "was a butt," when I meant to say he was cute. He laughed it off by patting Nonna's rear. That was funny but a little awkward to watch a nearly 90 year old man flirt...

2. Conversation I had with Nonno's English speaking 75 year-old cousin:

Me: What do Italians do in their free time?

Giancarlo: We make love!

Me: (hahaha) Excuse me?

Giancarlo: We make love! Don't you like to make love?

Me: uh....

Nonna and Nonno also have the cutest, fattest little dog - Bianca. She makes REALLY strange noises when she's sleeping. The weird sounds that come out of her makes snoring sound pleasant. And she barks A LOT! When the phone rings, when I open the bathroom door, when she wants our dinner... She's actually barking at nothing right now. But I don't mind. It's nice to have a home filled with noise.

Leo, their cat seems to have taken a fondness to me, which is strange since I actually don't like cats and am somewhat scared of them. However, I'm getting used to Leo when she curls up next to me while I type on my computer. As long as she's purring, I know she's happy and isn't going to attack me.

Yesterday

Yesterday, I roamed around the city for six and a half hours with a group of people. We went to the market at San Lorenzo where I bought a pashmina for five euros. After lunch, we headed across the Ponte Vecchio (an old bridge with jewelry shops on either side) and were blinded by the silver and gold window displays. The Arno river runs under the Ponte Vecchio and the view from the end of the bridge is just amazing.

Yesterday, I also bought my very first painting from a street artist. It's a colorful acrylic of the Ponte Vecchio, Arno River and the top of the

Duomo. I bought it for 50 euros, which seems expensive since it wasn't painted on canvas, but it moved me, so I bought it without much thought.

Another wonderful experience yesterday: I bought gelato for the first time. It's popular (or so I thought) to put gelato on a waffle here, so I (of course) tried that! Turns out that's actually a very touristy thing to do. Oh well...Casey, you would have loved it! I kept thinking of how you and I would so enjoy eating such a messy treat together :).

Speaking of people from home, I think of you all often. Little things here or there remind me of specific people. For example, so far the abundance of carbs makes me think of Kelly, Nonna reminds me of Grandma Munhofen, the markets get me wanting Karolina as a shopping buddy (an abundance of scarves and purses, K!), and the soap in the bathroom at our home smells like Taylor. Sorry, Taylor - I know that's kind of lame, but know that I think of you several times a day (or whenever I wash my hands) hahaha!! I love you and wish you were here because you'd be the best travel buddy!

Today

This morning I went to Catholic mass with Nonna. She goes to a church that's 700 years old!! Beautiful art on the inside! Megan, I thought of you and when we went to mass together. I'm so glad I went with you last semester or else I would have been completely lost today instead of just a little! The service was in Italiano, so I didn't really understand a whole lot, but it was really neat to think that God is present in all cultures and is worshiped in all different languages. It makes me think of the Tower of Babel story in the Bible...(in Genesis) when God saw that the Babylonians were selfishly building the city's tower to show off their skill by creating what they wanted to be the tallest tower - so tall it would "reach the heavens." God, displeased with their proud motives and rebellion against Him decided to confuse their language. So on his command, he jumbled their language and that's how we came to have a million different languages! How creative! Can you imagine talking to someone in the same language one second and in the other not being able to understand what they're saying!? I would have thought I'd gone senile...

Anyway, after church, Nonno and Nonna's family came over to help us celebrate Nonno's birthday. Felice Compleanno, Nonno! We had to remind him several times it was his birthday :(. But he seemed as happy as a clam and he's mobile, which is great! And we had the most fabulous birthday lunch for him! Nonna fixed this amazing ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese. The main course consisted of little onions, fried potatoes (like nothing you've had in the states), insalata and veal. Yum! And for dessert: profiteroles. A profiterole is a cream puff with chocolate on top. Dad, this was drenched in chocolate! You and I would have licked our plates clean!

Well, dinner is in an hour and I should probably read a little before. But of course I'm going to look at the leather purse I bought today first. Mom, you're going to want to confiscate it. It's okay, we can share...

School starts tomorrow. I'm taking an Italiano class, an oil painting class and two art history classes - one is titled, "16th Century Art and Identity" and the other is "Botticelli: in-depth analysis." He painted the famous "Birth of Venus." Worth looking up online if you don't know what it looks like.

I hope you enjoyed reading this long blog. Sorry for the length, but I wanted to give you every detail I could remember so it would be like you're experiencing Italia with me! Hope you're doing well.

Ciao and I will post again soon!