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Published: September 7th 2017
Geo: 43.7687, 11.2569
Please don't be too hard on my grammar, spelling, etc.. just did a quick read through and it's pretty rough, but I don't have time to fine tune this thing. It's coming out as I think it.... it's now 11:55 pm, really going to bed.
Well, what I expected did happen, I think I'm in Kindergarten, though there is a wide range of knowledge in there. From zero knowledge to more advanced than me, I'm probably in the mid to upper range of kindergarten right now ;-) We all took a test to see where we were to be placed, it was molto difficile... too bad I was too busy with life and getting ready for the trip to study! Anyway, I found time to study tonight, when I actually get to it I enjoy it, it's the getting to it that is the hard part. I think I mentioned that to my children when we were homeschooling.....something about not procrastinating....
We are definitely an international crowd, I met someone from each of these countries: Bavaria Germany, Bulgaria, Mexico, Austria, Finland, England I think that covers it. I'm the lone representative of the US. A few of us went out
Ciccolata Calda con panne
Delicious, drank this standing at the "bar" cost 3,50 if you want to sit the cost is 7 euro for caffe (for me ciccolata calda) and then later I took 3 of them to the same pizza place my hostess took me, they all enjoyed it also.
The test took an hour then we went for a caffe until 11, we then found out our class, and it was the conversation lesson until 1. So no grammatica today, that starts tomorrow and will be from 9-10:50 then conversation from 11:10 - 1:00. At 4 tomorrow they have a "class" on Italian body language, should be interesting, must be sign language! On Friday they have a little field trip to Certosa which is a monastery in a castle, it's two bus tickets away, so not too far! Sounds interesting and one of the teachers is taking us so we should make it there and back just fine.
Today was interesting and a bit laid back all at the same time, after I left my new found friends at about 3, I checked out the grocery store near the apartment, it was a lot less expensive than the store I bought the water at the other day. Literally, the water was half the price, just walk about 10-15 blocks away from the
Palazzo della Signoria
Seat of the government back in the day, now a museum, outside is the Piazza della Signoria... with the Davide, etc.. center of tourist ville and you pay much better prices. I also checked out a mini department store called Unum? it had all sorts of Esprit clothing there, decided I could get that at home... good prices though on some specials they had, shampoo etc... which I'll need to buy as I discovered I brought a container of conditioner instead of shampoo, have a minuscule thing of shampoo that I'll be through next time I wash my hair. Bought some Italian toothpaste too, will see how that tastes, it is promising me a classic strong mint flavor, it's called Marvis.
When I got back to the apartment it was 4 and I wanted to leave the books instead of walking around with them, decided to take a little nap also, doing pretty well with jet lag but am a little bit tired. After a nap went for a walk and decided I needed a scarf, usually I buy a 5 euro scarf and am perfectly happy with it from a street vendor, but I have plenty of those and wanted something nice from Florence as a souvenir, still didn't break the bank but found a beautiful red silk scarf in a
little shop on the way for 18 euros. I now walked to a part of the town I hadn't seen yet, walked around the Church of Orsanmichele, one of the most beautiful churches I've seen from the outside, lots of beautiful statues and ornate stonework, it was closed so didn't go inside (was originally a granary for the guilds). From there saw the Piazza Della Signoria this is where the Davide was originally placed when Michaelangelo finished it, now a replica is there so the weather doesn't destroy the original. Also, many other beautiful statues here, walked inside the Palazzo Della Signoria and saw a couple of courtyards, but didn't see the museum as it was late in the day and I will want to not rush through. After this strolled on down to the Arno River after passing through the portico of the Uffizzi Gallery, beautiful area to go through and then to see the river and Ponte Vecchio off to the right is fantastic. Amazing how strong that bridge must be to hold up those shops and living quarters to say nothing of the gold! and it does glitter as you walk past the Rolex, Cartier, etc... shops,
do you call a place that sells Rolex a "shop"? hmmm, not sure, I bet there is a better term, I was curious about the price of something and remembered the saying, "If you have to ask you can't afford it", it did get the better of me and I did ask and decided I couldn't afford it! So if Jim reads this, count yourself lucky when the bill isn't as big as it could have been!
Decided to head back before dark, stopped at the grocery for a salad to go, some cheese, water and toothpaste, ate in my room (sounds kind of sad but it wasn't ;-) checked emails, studied and did some homework, visited with my hostess, got ready for bed and now it's after 11. Will post some photos, hopefully, they load quickly.
BTW, walked 19,050 steps which equate to 8.2 miles!! Wonder what it will be when we hit Roma?
A domani, buona notte!
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Kath
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Some very interesting pictures of the architecture there, Wendy. Glad you made it, praying that cold doesn't catch up with you and hope you get some sunshine there sometime. Can tell you are on top of the fitbit chart this week...good job!