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Published: September 10th 2011
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We have successfully survived our first week in Florence. After a long day of orientation on Friday, we were able to relax over a nice dinner with Anna. We also found a gelato place very close to our house that sells strawberry cheesecake gelato for only 1.50 euro and I think we've already become regulars after only one week.
On Saturday morning, Anna woke us up very early (7:45 am!) to go to her friend's pool. Her friend Elizabeth lives in the country about a half hour outside of Florence and we had to take the train to get there. Elizabeth picked us up from the train station and drove us up very windy and narrow roads to her bed and breakfast/home. In Italy, agroturismo is very popular and people come from all over the world to stay in little villas in the Italian countryside. Her pool had a beautiful view of the mountains and while we were tanning and swimming, Anna cooked us a delicious lunch. Elizabeth owns many olive trees and we used her own olive oil and ate grapes from her vineyard. On the way home, Anna showed us how to get to the Coop, which is
a local and cheap grocery store in Italy. Big bottles of diet coke were only 1 euro and we even found salt and vinegar chips.
Monday was our first day of class and me and Kristy woke up extra early to make sure we would get there in time because the school has such a strict attendance policy. We left our house at 8:15 to get to our 9 am class but this was apparently not enough time because we got lost...surprise surprise. In Italy there is a dual numbering system on all of the buildings, all of the old buildings are numbered in blue numbers and the newer businesses all have red numbers so it's difficult to tell where you are sometimes. Luckily our teacher was very friendly and didn't mind. Afterwards, we found a delicious place to eat lunch called the Oil Shop. It was recommended to us by all of the Bentley students who have been here before and it was definitely worth the walk! For only 4.50 they have a variety of sandwiches that all come with french fries and a bottle of water. Although they have more typical Italian sandwiches, I'm happy with a
regular turkey and cheese. We've eaten lunch there almost every day this week and were excited to find out that they have a rewards card so after a certain number of sandwiches we can get a free sandwich and a free T-shirt. I have a feeling we'll be eating there a lot in the next couple of months.
On Tuesday me and Kristy went to explore the Santa Croce church that is only a couple minutes down the street from our house. There are many famous tombs within the church, including Michelangelo, Galileo, and Napoleon Bonaparte's niece and sister in law. Luckily we were wearing jeans and nice shirts because if your legs or shoulders are showing they make you buy a shawl type thing to cover up. Afterwards we headed over to Italian class which we have every day from 3 to 4:15.
On Wednesday I had my first Business and Marketing of Wine class from 6 pm to 8:30 at night. My teacher owns his own winery and sells his wine in various parts of the United States. Throughout the course we have many field trips scheduled, including a local winery and many wine shops around
Florence where my professor will explain the differences in the prices and quality of the shops. I'm assuming that this tour will not include the 1 euro juice box wine we've been buying recently 😊. After dinner we went to the festival of Rificolona, which is an annual festival in Florence that takes place on September 7th. The children of Florence all carry various decorated lanterns through the streets, some with fire and some with lights inside. Hundreds of years ago the peasants from the countryside of Florence used to bring all of their goods in on the night of September 7th, led by lanterns in order to celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary and sell their goods at the market. Another tradition that (unfortunately) still continues on is the balls of clay that children spit at the paper lanterns in order to make them burn down. The kids have a blast and look for unsuspecting people to hit with the tiny balls of clay. From personal experience, it's pretty painful. Afterwards, we went to meet up with Bentley people and met an Italian guy named Gregorio. Gregorio told us that he makes his own pasta and sells it
to TJ Maxx and Homegoods across the United States. Gregorio told us that he can tell us some of the more local Italian places to go out so we're not stuck at the American touristy places every weekend.
On Thursday we had our first History of the Medici Family class. Although our teacher is somewhat boring, she's taught the class for 10 years and definitely knows what she's talking about. Every class she has a tour planned for us of a different historical place. The class seems like it will be a lot of work,except many of the places she's taking us are difficult to get into and well worth writing the various papers. On Thursday night, Anna invited 5 of her friends over to eat dinner with us and we ate handmade pasta with various French cheeses, which Kelly was pretty excited about (Kelly claims she's going to name her first son Formaggio). Afterwards we went and got a gelato and watched the men set up a stage in the Santa Croce piazza for the George Michael concert that is taking place there tonight.
On Friday we had the day off and were able to sleep in
for the first time in about 2 weeks. It's cooled off a little at night now so we are able to close the windows and don't have to listen to the cars driving by. We got cheeseburgers from a place on our street (unfortunately they weren't up to par with American cheeseburgers) and then I wandered over to the piazza Michelangelo. Although it's a little bit of a hike, this piazza has the best view of the city and is worth seeing. Anna is at a wedding for the weekend so she had her friend Letizia come over to make us dinner. Letizia speaks very little English but yet still tries to talk to us as if we understand what she's staying, which is somewhat frustrating and awkward. She made us some type of cold rice dish which was our first meal that we didn't love since we've been here. In Italy, it's rude to not finish your entire meal but we just couldn't eat all of it. After she left we went to our favorite gelato place (again) and tried the chocolate and coconut combination (so good). We went out to a couple places on Friday night and were
even able to find one of the secret bakeries! In Florence, bakers start cooking in the middle of the night so everything will be fresh in the morning. A man approached us and asked what we wanted and we ordered 3 chocolate croissants. He gave them to us fresh out of the oven and we were beyond happy. Hopefully we can find more secret bakeries!
Today we were able to sleep in again and went to a diner down the street for breakfast. We walked around for a while and found the Disney store and then wandered back to the house. It's still so hot out! According to the school, we can pick up our museum pass on the 19th so we'll be able to start exploring once we have those. We're going to use the rest of the afternoon to plan our fall break. There are many student travel agencies that try to push their trips on you but we think we're going to plan our own. As of right now, we're going to Barcelona, Paris, and London over the course of 10 days (If anyone knows any good and inexpensive hotels let me know!) Tonight we're going
Statue
During our first Holocaust class, our teacher took us to see this statue and told us that a Jewish man got in a fight and accidentally broke part of the statue off in the 16th century. As a punishment, he was taken to every church in the town as the mob killed him. The inscription underneath described what happened. to a restaurant that offers "appertio" which means that you can buy one drink and they offer unlimited appetizers. Hopefully the food's good and we don't end up at the gelato place again!
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mom
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who is that other person in the woods!!!!