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Published: April 6th 2010
First an observation: There are lots of bicyclists here in Florence. Since they are greatly surpassed by cars, motorcycles and scooters in terms of numbers, speed and mass, they would seem pretty vulnerable as they weave in and out of traffic. Nevertheless, except for of the three fully-equipped riders with all the latest gear on racing bikes I saw early Sunday morning when I first arrived, I have yet to see even one other bicyclist wearing a helmet.
Another traffic phenomenon: motor scooters and cycles. At red lights, all the bikes that can manage it, weave their way around the cars to get to the front. Then, when the light changes, they shoot ahead en mass and roar down the next street at great speed. When there happens to be ten or fifteen in position, it makes for a really impressive sight (and sound).
In general, the drivers in Florence seem less intense than in Sicily. In Taormina, the instant a motorcyclist got on his bike and started the engine, he would go at breakneck speed, even in the smallest of alleys. It was sometimes a bit unnerving if you happened to be quietly strolling along such a place when one of these riders started up or made a turn into where you were walking. Although not a bit shy about speed, the bikers here in Florence seem more “contained” - less aggressive, as do the car drivers. That’s not to say that they appear to be anything less than intense as they rush hither and yon, but I’ve witnessed drivers here willingly, if not happily, yielding the right of way on several occasions, especially to pedestrians, although one is wise not to count on it.
(Aside: This all is in definite contrast, by the way, to what I experienced in Costa Rica, where you can be assured, without the slightest doubt, that approaching cars will run you down if you happen to give them the chance.)
As for other comparisons, things are dramatically different here than it was in Sicily. Taormina was small and “quaint” and dominated by tourists looking to relax and enjoy beautiful vistas all around. Florence, in contrast, is definitely a big, bustling city: lots of traffic and noise and people (residents and visitors) rushing from here to there and back again, trying to get in the most work, sights, “experiences”, whatever they can in the shortest time possible. And, interestingly, lots of people smoke here, particularly women. There are also quite a few dogs and (sorry to mention it, but in the interests of full disclosure) lots of uncleaned-up dog poop, although, happily, not in the tourist areas.
Another item of note: A substantial portion of the police force is made up of woman and all the ones I’ve seen, packing, as the male officers do, big sidearms, look tough enough to take care of whatever they might be faced with. Don’t know why they appear more intimidating than American policewomen, but they do to me. By the way, some wear their hair long down the back of their uniforms and I’ve seen male officers with beards, neither a common sight back home.
I’m quite happy with the school here. In comparing it to the one in Taormina, there are pros and cons (of course). This one is very small. Last week, there were only seven students, in all (compared to perhaps twenty or so in Taormina) -- five in my class and two absolute beginners in another. In consequence, the “hang-out” factor is fairly nil so far. Of the other six students, five were young gals and the other was a guy with a family in town, who was only doing one week at the school. We’ll see what (who) next week brings.
On the other hand, I enjoy the classes and the teaching much more here. Instead of the instructor being the focus of the class, as was the case in Taormina, with him/her “teaching”, we seem to all be in it together. Rather than him/her standing or sitting in front, with all the students focusing on the teacher or down at our work, we (including the instructor) sit around a large square table and are all engaged all of the time. Also, at the previous school, the teachers would often do games of some sort, which were usually only marginally useful, as was the regular practice of splitting us up into groups of twos and threes to try and do some exercises with everyone shouting above the din of all those other people speaking in a small room at the same time.
Here, in contrast, we do a lot of talking under the guidance of the teacher and we all benefit from whatever corrections any one of us gets. Although the first half of each half-day of classes has a grammatical focus, the teacher we had this past week was skilled at seeing what he needed to emphasize, based on our manifested knowledge or lack thereof, rather than just following a fixed formula - what, in the current English vernacular, might be called an ”organic” method.
In addition, the second half of the school time is primarily devoted just to conversation. If one wants to, he/she can carry on at length about this or that topic now and then, which is not only fun and more interesting than artificial “classwork”-type activities, but it also gets those of us not used to doing much of that in Italian more in the habit of trusting our ability to communicate. So far, I’ve looked forward to each school day.
As for the students, in my class, the young women are from Spain, Germany and Japan; the guy was from Germany. The two gals in the beginning class were from Mexico and Sweden.
At the beginning of this week, I asked around about gyms to work out in and for places to dance. The two private gyms I checked out were insanely expensive at around $250 for a month. (I’ll check this week to see if there happens to be a YMCA around. In any case, I’m doing a lot of walking.)
But, I did find a dance school only about four blocks from where I’m living. On Tuesday night, I tried out an Argentine tango class and it was just OK. On the other hand, on Thursday night, I did a salsa one and really enjoyed it, even though they did some patterns that I didn’t know much of the time. After the class, I asked the instructors if they thought that I’d need a private lesson to catch up on the moves and they said, “non ti preoccupare”, that I’d pick up on them as we went along, that I obviously knew how to dance and they’d be happy to have me in the class. Very nice.
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Nancy
non-member comment
Costa Rica suicide drivers alive and well
Hola Don - You'll be glad to know the tradition of refusing to lift one's foot off the gas pedal even a millimeter lives on! However, we do see less insane driving in general - our only theory being that they are killing themselves off.