Buon giorno from Firenze! After a whopping two days of travel (I began traveling Sunday night, and arrived in Florence Tuesday morning), one delayed flight (from JFK to Rome), and lots of orientation activities at SU Florence, I finally have time to tell you about my journey. Mi permetta di descrivere...
Tuesday we were shepparded from the airport to the Hotel Mediterraneano and assigned random rooming based on our flight arrivals. Those who independently traveled were thrown in where there was room. So people from Flight 1 (Courtney’s flight) roomed together, while Flight 2 people (my flight) stuck together. Flight 3 and the pre-orientation Greece seminar people were housed at Hotel Colombo, a ten minute walk from Mediterraneano. While my room was unimpressive, a friend of mine staying in room 207 had the most stunning room in comparison, and I would highly recommend her accommodations to anyone visiting Firenze.
Please note that Firenze is the Italian way of saying Florence. You will probably see most Italian cities called by their Italian names from here on out.
After quickly dropping off our belongings in our rooms we were ushered to the SUF (Syracuse University Florence) campus. With our city maps in hand, and a few fourth year architects leading the way, we arrived at Villa Rossa, the main building of SUF. Villa Rossa literally means “Pink House,” and it was the most beautiful pink house I’ve ever seen!! It’s architecture reminded me of the Marymount campus from high school: with frescoed ceilings; a well-kept garden and courtyard where we were treated to a lunch of pasta pomodoro, fresh parmesan cheese and bread and sliced tomatoes; and the Villino building behind it housing the Library and Skype Rooms. It’s the most bellissima campus to study at! I feel so lucky to be able to attend classes in such a lovely vicinity.
After several orientation meetings we were free to explore the cittá for the afternoon, so I took off with a couple of friends to explore the city center beyond the original city wall, an arch of which remains intact half way to the Villa Rossa. We wandered down narrow 15th century streets, passed shoe shops, tabacchi, and gentlemen blowing kisses at us as we got excited about being able to live in such an amazing city. We took time to make our way to Sant’Ambrogio, a small church with original frescos from 1430, some of which are mere cartoons or left unrestored. After lighting a vigil candle, I took plenty of time to nerd out on all the feast of art in front of me. We returned to the hotel for dinner and realized we had arrived an hour early, so ventured out again to find gelato and the Firenze flea market. We arrived at the flea market just in time for the afternoon break, but found gelato not too far away. In broken Italian, I ordered Courtney and I each a pistachio and chocolate double scoop. The ragazzi serving us laughed and proceeded to serve us in English, but not without a few Italian bessino tossed our way. And the gelato? Quite simply, it was bomb dot com. It was the most amazing ice cream treat that has ever tickled my taste buds. I cannot wait to go back to that place.
We met for a group dinner at the Hotel M. and finished thinking, what next? After making a few new friends, a group of us decided to grab a glass of wine across from our hotel and right on the Arno River that cuts through Firenze. It was a beautiful way to kick off my stay in Italia, I loved every minute of it.
Except the mosquito bites that blossomed on my body the next day as a result of our moonlit wine-tasting.
Wednesday we woke to stormy clouds and warm humidity, which eventually turned into torrential rain (and I packed my pink umbrella in my OTHER suitcase!). But our day consisted of a lot of meetings and paperwork at Villa Rossa. We met with the Italian department, and I didn’t have too hard a time keeping up with the head of the department’s rapid Italian descriptions of the intermediate and advanced courses. And I discovered I can take Italian IV pass/fail (VA BENE!!!!!). My laptop was connected to the Internet, and I received my transportation disbursement, which is enough to cover a bus pass for four months in Firenze (140 euro), but I’m considering getting a bike instead (the cost of a bike, helmet, basket, and lock runs about 130 euro). Hannah and I ran through the rain to the Wind store with our new friend Dani leading the way to get our hands on an international cell phone, and we left il negozio triumphant with our new European technology and slightly soaked. Our second day in Firenze ended with another group dinner, at which I was regaled with tales of the Greece Odyssey pre-seminar trip, which sounded amazing! I was a little peanut butter and jealous, especially when these guys showed me their pictures after cena!!
More to come...meeting my host mammá really puts my Italian to the test
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