First week

I have thoroughly enjoyed this first week here. My masters and monuments class is pretty cool because we get to go to museums and churches for class. The other day we got to see one of Michelangelo’s three “Pietas.” It is great getting into these famous museums and pretty much having our teacher as our tour guide. Way better than what art history classes in Storrs, CT has to offer! I’m not so sure about my architecture in Italy class however…my professor is a little boring, but luckily we go out into the city for this class as well.

I’ve had a couple of interesting shopping excursions this week. Who would have thought that they don’t sell salad dressing in Italy? Or that they don’t sell peanut butter, but only Nutella? Or that laundry detergent here is powder? All of these things can be very confusing when you are walking up and down an aisle looking for something and they don’t have what you are looking for and everything is labeled in Italian. And then you ask somebody where something is and they only know a few words of English. Then I go through the checkout line and am asked (in Italian) if I want to buy a plastic bag to use. WHAT? Such a crazy concept…but I guess a good way to get people to go green. Speaking of going green, our dryer in our apartment is broken so after doing laundry we have to hang all of our clothes up by the window to dry and it takes about three days.

After class one day this week a few of us girls walked to the Ponte de Vecchio which is an extremely old bridge that goes across the Arno River. It has shops all along it that sell gold and silver jewelry. The most beautiful scenery can be viewed from this bridge.

Friday, about 40 of us from the program went on an excursion to Pisa. After getting off the coach bus (I don’t think any European coach buses have bathrooms) I had to use the bathroom. What do I find out? That there is a 70 cent fee to use the bathroom (this is in euros…so that equals over a dollar). So knowing me, I am going to be spending a bunch of money on this trip. Anyways, finally after a ten-minute wait, us bathroom goers got to actually walk to the Leaning Tower of Pisa! I can’t even describe how amazing it felt to be standing in front of one of the seven wonders of the world.

After taking millions of pictures there, we got back on the bus and rode to Lucca which is a cute old city about half an hr from Pisa. The highlight of my day was renting bikes and riding around a gorgeous bike trail that loops around the edge of Lucca. The view of the city was amazing as well as the mountains in the distance.

Saturday, four friends of mine and I took a 7 am train to Milan. The trains here are so fancy compared to the ones I am used to in the US. Picture the train from Harry Potter (well not quite), but picture restaurant booths and tables all lined up one after the other. Also, there was a kitchen in which you could buy drinks and snacks. We reached Milan around 10 am. We walked around and through a huge-fancy-glass-dome-covered-mall-thing (excuse my bad grammar). There was a fancy McDonalds in which I bought a cappuccino frappe. It was by far the best thing I have ever bought at McDonalds. Then we visited the Milan duomo, which happens to be the fourth biggest cathedral in Europe!
Crazy, I know. I felt like an ant inside of it. The intricate and beautifully painted stained glass was incredible. We took an elevator to the top of the cathedral and walked around taking pictures for what seemed like ages, because there were so many gorgeous angles and views that we wanted to photograph. We got to walk right under all of the flying buttresses and look out over Milan. We walked around some more and got some dinner. There is so much to do in Milan that we didn’t get to do, but we didn’t feel like staying at a hostil that night so we came back the same day.

Buongiorno! Florence is already my favorite city I have ever been to. The first couple of days it didn't seem real that I was here...if you have ever been to epcot, that is what it felt like for me. When I first got off the plane when we landed in Rome, it hit me that we were in Italy because I had a language barrier situation. A woman guard at security started speaking Italian to me about my laptop bag and I had no idea what she was talking about. Looking back it is pretty humorous but at the time I was a nervous wreck.
After getting our connecting flight to Florence, we got taxi rides to our apartments. Our taxi driver was the craziest driver I have ever seen, swerving between mopeds and people. But then I learned that everybody drives like this in Florence and that they don't stop for pedestrians. The apartment I am staying in is huge! There are ten girls total in the apartment and every two people have their own room and bathroom. We have a common room and a kitchen. It is good to have so many girls in the apartment because you can pretty much always have somebody or a group that wants to do the same thing as you. Our apartment is in a central location so it is close to the main part of the city, and is a two minute walk from the school. It's great because I can walk outside of the apartment and grab a pastry at the bakery across the street.
The food here is delicious! I have not had one bad meal yet. The other night I ordered my first wine in a restaurant. I am not a big fan of wine but when in Florence, do as the Florentines do. We have also been to an outdoor restaurant on the piazza right near our apartment. The piazza has a carousel and at night has live music and artists. Last night we went to get gelattos which were excellent! Also I am a big fan of chocolate croissants.
Two nights ago I had my first club experience! The club was right next to the Duomo. We had a lot of fun dancing, and Italy plays a lot of American music so we knew most of the songs. When I mention the Duomo, I mean the big cathedral in the middle of Florence with the big red dome that you see in pictures. The intricacy of the building is mind-boggling as well as the size! It is by far the biggest and tallest cathedral I have ever seen.
Yesterday I walked through an outdoor market selling all types of leather items since Florence is known for its leather. They have the market set up every day. Today I went to the food market which they have in a huge building. All different vendors are selling items such as meat, breads, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables. Everything there is really cheap compared to the supermarket. I even tried ordering things in Italian! I am slowly learning the basics which has been really helpful.