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Published: September 7th 2017
Lunch at a cafeteria, Leonardo's
Students of the scuola get a discount here, good lasagna, ok buschetta, nice staff! Ristorante Self-Service LeonardoGeo: 43.7687, 11.2569
Again, patience with the writing please, maybe I'll get to editing but no promises!
Today was a good day, got to the school a few minutes early, it rained the entire walk so even with the umbrella I felt damp. It's not cold but muggy, so you're damp and hot, not a great combo. Everyone has an umbrella at the ready, so different from the Tri-Cities where our umbrellas are hidden in the back of a closet somewhere and you might get it out if it rains but who really bothers when you're just running from the car to the store entrance? Here people are walking who knows how far to get to work or school, riding their bikes in all weather with their kids in tow. Lots of bambini in strollers with plastic rain shields, on the bikes, parents taking them in the morning to school or daycare, etc... when the bikes are parked (and locked) they leave plastic bags over the seats to keep them dry, great idea, probably not new to you city folk but where I live people only get their bikes out for "fun" not as a means of transportation. Definitely, a plus to ride
a bike instead of a car here, for one cars are not allowed to drive on all the streets, two if you look at some of my photos some streets are only wide enough for a small car to go through, three try to park! these people are masters at parallel parking in the tightest of spaces... I"m sure the locals can give more reasons to not drive here but that would be enough for me.
But I digress... got to school and we had our grammatica lesson, I must be the odd one because I much prefer grammar and understand it better than the conversation, though I am getting better at that also. We were definitely at the beginning beginning and I wanted to move along but no doubt I can do with the review of the word "the" ;-) Hopefully we'll get a bit further tomorrow, the conversation class was fun, we described where we are living in Florence and then had to describe the other students living arrangements, it was nice to actually understand and be able to communicate on the subject. After feeling so good about myself ;-) I went back to a "seminar" on Italian body
language, I thought it would be a movie, or someone explaining this in Inglese, etc... NO the entire hour was in Italiano, and not kindergarten Italiano either, so my mind was definitely struggling to understand and "got it" un poco but the vast majority was not understandable to me, one gal walked out! The great thing about this subject though is that it is about body language and how we communicate with it, so the language explaining wasn't always necessary!!
Between the time the main lessons were over 1:00 and 4:00 when I went back to the "seminar" I went to lunch at a self-service cafeteria where the students get a discount. I went with a woman from Germany, she arrived yesterday morning but her luggage didn't, so she still hadn't had a change of clothes, she was hoping they would be delivered today to the school, I hope so as she was really wanting to get into some clean clothes and I don't blame her. After lunch I found my way to Dante Alighieri's Casa, he wrote the "Inferno", the actual title is longer I believe but that is what it's usually known by, don't test me on that
A view of the Piazza della Signoria
It was a sea of umbrellas here, rained ALL day, very muggy, not cold though or how to spell his last name! It was an interesting museum, lots of Florentine history of the different families and the wars between the Guelphs and the Ghibbilines and their quests for power and control of the area, Henry the VII even got involved in it along with the king of France, I thought it was very well done and interesting.
Finished this just in time to head back over to the school for the seminar which I've already told you about.After the seminar, Adrianna, the woman from Mexico and I then decided to go get another drink at Gilli which is in the Piazza Della Repubblica, it's been around since 1733, it's absolutely beautiful inside, didn't get any photos, if I go back I'll try to do so, even the bathroom was gorgeous. She had a caffe and I had a ciccolata calda without the panna this time, calda it is not, but delicious it is. It really is like melting a chocolate bar and drinking it, amazing! As it was a bit after 5 everything was closing and we really were at a loss as to what to do, too late to go to a museum but
too early to just go back to our apartments. So I suggested we try to find the leather school, we asked for directions, it's just behind the Church of Santa Croce, which was closed too. We got to the school at 5 minutes before closing and it was closed, so we decided to walk along the river back towards Ponte Vecchio, we both took some photos, parted ways to go back to our own places. I've been passing a halal kebab shop and decided to give it a try, it says "Indiana" food, I'm guessing that is food from India, not our Indiana ;-) and I think I was right, it was good much like a gyro, with a bit more lettuce and salad stuff on it and some other kind of sauce along with some sort of probably yogurt sauce, etc... half of it would have been enough, but it was good and a bargain, dinner for 4 euros. During the stroll back to the apartment I passed a gelato shop, haven't had one yet so decided to go ahead and had a baby cone with dark, dark chocolate and limone, delicious!
Am now relaxing with the blog, will
do some homework, very easy stuff right now but no doubt will get more challenging tomorrow. I am missing my hubby and children and praying that everyone is well. I'm looking forward to Karen joining me in a few days, I know by then my brain will be on overload and it will be nice to be able to have a conversation in English, right now I'm still o.k. ;-) but even outside of class I have to pepper my English with Italian as English isn't my classmate's first language so it is forcing me to speak more Italian than I naturally would which is why I came in the first place!
For those interested (or not) my steps recorded by Fitbit today are 16,465 which translates to 7.9 miles which also explains why my back is sore! walking on uneven wet cobblestones is a bit dangerous, I'm really surprised I haven't seen anyone fall yet, including myself!
A domani, buona notte! Per i miei nipoti, nonna ti ama!
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Barb
non-member comment
I'm so impressed with the detail in which you are keeping us posted, Wendy - thanks! I admit, I'm not nearly educated enough about Italy or Italian history to understand a lot of it, but I still appreciate the exposure to such things :) A
nd so excited for you to be able to live this part of your dream. It's amusing to imagine you and the gals from the other countries trying to communicate in your Italian, since you don't have another common language. Keep up the good work!