Hey America!

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Going on two weeks in beautiful Florence and the city continues to change everyday as more and more shops and restaurants open everywhere because the Florentines are coming back from summer vacation. Its a very busy city, to put into perspective its said that there are 1.5 cars to every person including babies and the elderly in this city, including Vespa... so you learn right away to walk on the sidewalk (haha) The good news is my Italian is really coming along, its so much easier learning a language when you are forced to use in everywhere you go.
So here is the update on what has been happening in the life of Lauren:
--This past weekend we stayed in Florence to settle in and explore the city. We climbed up Piazza Michelangelo, supposedly the best view of Florence, it was GORGEOUS, all the Mediterranean style buildings and the Duomo looked amazing with the city and mountains behind it. We went back the next day at night and unfortunately the pictures didn't come out, but the city looked even more beautiful all lit up.
-Finally visited the famous Il Duomo-Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, it’s a church most known for being designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. It’s HUGE and beautiful inside, the art on the walls and ceilings are incredible
-Our culture teacher took us to her favorite sandwich (panino) shop in all of Tuscany, given shes a professional cook and Tuscany is a food capital of the world, this was a brave statement, and of course she was right! It was called I Fratellini… this little hole in the wall but I don’t know whether it was the bread, the prosciotto, or the nice glass of wine it came with, but it was delicious, there are no seats no doors just a little stand on the side of a back street, it was great!
-Today our professor took us to the San Lorenzo Market, outside is full of street vendors selling everything from knock off bags, to leather jackets, shoes, postcards, tshirts and all, but inside is all the food, 2 floors of various stands overflowing with different types of meats, fish, cheeses, fresh fruit, vegetables, dried fruit, nuts, herbs, wine, and tons of homemade pasta! We saw a man actually making the pasta in the machines, this stand had baskets full of different types of ravioli and pastas all cooked daily. Its amazingly cheap too on Tuesdays and Thursday, enough for 4 people is about 2 euro—freshly made tortellini filled with everything you can imagine !!! It was a little overwhelming and gross to see all the different raw meats, especially the Tripe-the fourth stomach of a cow AND the one and only place in Florence to buy horse! EWW! My teacher even convinced some boys on the trip to buy some and make horse burgers!
-We also saw the house where Giovanni da Verrazzano was born- man the NY bridge was named after.

It’s going by so fast already, cant wait for my special visitors coming in the next month!!!

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