I’ve now been gone from home for about a week, and it feels like it’s been three. This weekend was such a whirlwind of activity! Friday, after class registration, an safety meeting, and booking my first trip across Europe (I’m going to London in two weeks!), we were free to explore the city fully and on our own.
Anna had bought us bus passes that morning, so we were on our own to make it home by our 8pm supper. After getting lost in Piazza Libertá, we made our way to the Duomo past San Lorenzo (which some of us thought was actually il Duomo. Oops). When we arrived at the very commercial area of the Duomo, some of the group wanted to go shopping, meanwhile this art history student was shedding tears of joy at the sight of THE Duomo. Dani, another art history student with SUF, was kind enough to revel in its glory with me as we appreciated the Gates of Paradise on the Baptistery and the magnificent size of the basilica. After regrouping, we made it our mission to find the world’s best gelato (according to National Geographic). Shlepping our laptops and school books around and wandering around Firenze’s confusing streets, we gave up for the day and had gelato from a smaller local shop (I drowned my sorrows in tiramisu flavored gelato and a freshly made canolo). This search is still on, however, for National Geographic gelato. More to come.
We trekked back to the bus stop Anna had showed us by the Villa Rossa (because we didn’t know any better than to find one closer) and hopped on hoping for the best. We got off on the second stop Anna had showed us (so we thought…) and realized we couldn’t find our street. We were definitely in the right neighborhood! (And it being a very suburban area, we weren’t too alarmed, just confused.) But we meandered down three different streets before we reached our apartment, where we told Anna, giggling in our broken Italian, how lost we’d been!
SUF hosted a scavenger hunt around Firenze for the students Saturday morning at 10am. At 9:25am, Hannah and I had finished our breakfast of
marmalata frescole, biscotti, tea and coffee, and were waiting by the bus stop for our 9:31am bus. 9:40 rolls around—no bus. At 9:46 a #8 bus comes around the corner and we wave it down, hop on, and wait to be taken to school. At the next stop, the bus stops, turns off, and the bus driver leaves. Uhhhhh….what? By 10:08 we’re off again and we’re just trying to get to the Piazza della Signoria at this point, regardless of the time. Once we crossed the Arno, we hit the call button, hop off, and start walking. About a mile and a half later, we arrive at Ponte Vecchio, taking our time to take pictures and enjoy our Saturday morning stroll. Soon, Hannah and I realized that despite our miles of walking, we were so lucky. Who else has stumbled upon the Biblioteca Nationale Centrale di Firenze? Who else would've stumbled upon the Love Padlocks by Ponte Vecchio? (In Firenze, love padlocks have been affixed to the railing around and near the statue of Benvenuto Cellini.) We’d missed the treasure hunt by the 
time we arrived in Piazza della Signoria (at 10:45) but caught up with the tail end of one group, grabbed the checklist, and went on the scavanger hunt on our own that included a sketch of a man on the side of Piazza Vecchio by Michelangelo and a fruit and vegetable stand with the best grapes in Italy.
marmalata frescole, biscotti, tea and coffee, and were waiting by the bus stop for our 9:31am bus. 9:40 rolls around—no bus. At 9:46 a #8 bus comes around the corner and we wave it down, hop on, and wait to be taken to school. At the next stop, the bus stops, turns off, and the bus driver leaves. Uhhhhh….what? By 10:08 we’re off again and we’re just trying to get to the Piazza della Signoria at this point, regardless of the time. Once we crossed the Arno, we hit the call button, hop off, and start walking. About a mile and a half later, we arrive at Ponte Vecchio, taking our time to take pictures and enjoy our Saturday morning stroll. Soon, Hannah and I realized that despite our miles of walking, we were so lucky. Who else has stumbled upon the Biblioteca Nationale Centrale di Firenze? Who else would've stumbled upon the Love Padlocks by Ponte Vecchio? (In Firenze, love padlocks have been affixed to the railing around and near the statue of Benvenuto Cellini.) We’d missed the treasure hunt by the 
time we arrived in Piazza della Signoria (at 10:45) but caught up with the tail end of one group, grabbed the checklist, and went on the scavanger hunt on our own that included a sketch of a man on the side of Piazza Vecchio by Michelangelo and a fruit and vegetable stand with the best grapes in Italy.
Piazza della Signoria is another art historian’s mecca—original Roman marbles (such as The Rape of the Sabine Women and Hercules and the Centaur) are housed in Loggia dell Signoria, the Uffizi Gallery is to the left of that, there’s a copy of Michelangelo’s David overlooking the piazza, and Piazza Vecchio was basically the Medici’s Florentine villa, decorated with frescos and gold-leafed bas reliefs. I was like a kid in a candy shop. Our group multiplied and we made our way to the Duomo for a light pranzo of pizza at an open-aired café right next to the basilica.
After lunch we continued our search for National Geographic gelato (again to little avail), but not before I found a piazza worth exploring down a narrow via. I didn’t know what it was, but it was a piazza and I wanted to see it. Without a map and without an previous knowledge, we ended up in the piazza of L’Ospedale Infintile and it was beautiful!
We went back to our apartment to Anna's fantastic cooking, dinner has been amazing every night since we've been here. Hannah and I decided to make an attempt to go to the cittá to meet friends that evening. All I'm going to say about our night out is that it involved more gelato than vino (we stumbled upon the National Geographic gelatteriá!! I had cioccolata ricca e cioccolata arancia and it really was the most bombdotcom gelato EVER) and that I now know that it takes 2.5 hours to walk to the city and back from our house in the suburbs.
Our Sunday was a full immersion Sunday that was intended for all the students to stay with their host families and get to know each other. Anna planned for us to go out to the countryside right out of Florence and into Fiesole, a beautiful mountain cittá that is home to a lovely open aired antique book market and ancient Roman ruins and theater. We sipped l'acqua frizzante and enjoyed the panorama at the ruins after climbing them all morning. (Anna may be an elderly woman, but by no means is she old!) We returned home for homemade pizza. We made plans to meet with una amica d'Anna at 4pm, and that's when we met Antoinetta.
If Anna is our grandmother, then Antoinetta is the crazy aunt every loves. She told us that Anna and her were our nonne, and that she wants to speak English. In exchange for her English vocabulary lessons she will teach Hannah Italian. She's an absolute riot. We went to Piazza Michaelangelo with Anna and Antoinetta for the amazing view of the city of Florence and the biggest serving of gelato (straciatella and hazelnut). We visited the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte, but the four of us attended Mass at the church of San Salvatore, smaller and more modern. Yes, Mass was in Italian, but it was an amazing experience as una familia.
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