***BONUS***
Before I dive into Florence, here are 3 more photos I dug up from Friday and Saturday night! The first two are from dinner with Silvio, third is a dog selfie taken a few hours before we conquered the Duomo.
Pallin' around with my new friend Silvio.
The whole gang! Silvio <3's limoncello
Dog selfie!
DAY 1 - 4/03/17 - Monday
The Italian Flows
Now onto Florence. After a few weeks in hostels, it was pure luxury to have a whole bedroom all to myself. I was set to stay in Florence for two weeks, taking an Italian language course at a school called Linguaviva, and staying in a shared apartment with some other students.
The apartment was just north of the main part of the city, and was fairly large with five bedrooms and four bathrooms. Everyone else was around my age and super nice, although throughout the two weeks I hardly saw them as everyone was in school and out and about most of the time. This worked out just fine for me though because I enjoyed having some alone time. I was also out a lot with my classmates, who I bonded with over our shared excitement and frustration in learning Italian.
One of my classmates, Sarah, happened to be from Portland! Truly a small world since there were only 8 people in the class. She would be staying in Italy for three months total, and brought along her adorable dog Isabella for the trip.
I wonder if she could understand the Italian dogs.
Our classes were held Monday through Friday, from 9am - 12:30pm with a half hour break. They were really fun and I would have gladly stayed for a month or longer if I could. The very first class started out with a quick orientation, and then our teacher showed up and started speaking to us in Italian right off the bat. Her name was Caterina and she was an excellent teacher. She spoke in Italian the entire time, which was pretty overwhelming at first but actually ended up being very helpful. Language immersion and all that. The students in my class were from all over the world and a wide mix of ages, and despite these big differences we all got along super well.
After our first day of class, we went on an hour long orientation tour of the city. We stopped by many sights including the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, also known as the Duomo of Florence. This is pretty much the central attraction of the city - "duomo" is an Italian word that typically means the largest or most important church in the city.
It sure looks important!
The front. No Italian karaoke here yet but there are still 2 weeks to go.
Besides the Duomo, we also saw the Mercado Centrale, the Palazzo Vecchio, and several other things that I can't remember because we went through them so quickly. It wasn't until several days later that I was able to pick apart pieces of the tour and remember some of the places we had been.
One of the most interesting parts of Florence that we passed by on the tour was the Vasari Corridor. This corridor was built in 1565 and runs several feet above the city from the Palazzo Vecchio across the Ponte Vecchio and over to the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the river. It was built as a secure way for the rich and powerful Medici family to get from their working offices in the Palazzo Vecchio to their living quarters in Palazzo Pitti without having to interact with the common people. Could you imagine being so rich and important that an entire secret passageway was built for your family to commute to and from work? Also, the Ponte Vecchio used to contain a meat market, but the entire market was moved to stop the smell reaching the Medici's corridor. Yeah.
A part of the corridor running off Palazzo Vecchio on the left. Windows so they can look out at the plebs.
After the tour, a group of us went to a gelato shop recommended by our teacher as the best gelato in Florence. It was called Gelateria La Carraia and it lived up to the hype.
Maria (Brasil), Lanshin (Taiwan), Verena (Germany), Sydney (Canada).
We were thinking about trying to meet up for dinner that night, but we were all pretty exhausted from the day. Learning a new language is incredibly tiring! Instead, I went back to my apartment and cooked some dinner, and put away my clothes in an actual wardrobe for the first time in weeks.
Kitchen with awesome balcony doors.
My clothes hung up on real life hangers!!
I even have my own desk.
I will admit that I spent a good chunk of time that night watching Friends on my computer. Although I didn't completely let myself off the hook - I found out that Netflix in Italy has shows and movies available with Italian subtitles or even dubbed in Italian! So I watched Friends dubbed in Italian, which was highly entertaining. And educational, probably.
DAY 2 - 4/04/17 - Tuesday
Capito?
Being back in school is the bees knees. It has been so long since I've taken a class, and I missed it! In addition to classes, Linguaviva organizes activities in most of the afternoons. On Tuesday the activity planned was a trip to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a picturesque spot located on a hill to the south of the city, right next to the Palazzo Pitti. Unfortunately, the day we went it was stormy, cold, and extremely windy. Fortunately, this meant that there were far fewer tourists than normal. On weekends during sunset the crowd is so thick you can barely walk through it without bumping into someone or stepping on an empty wine bottle.
Our guide for the afternoon was a teacher from the school who used to be an art history professor, so he knew a ton about the history of Florence, and was eager to share it. There were only four of us students who signed up - myself, Sydney, Maria, and Thiago - all from level 1. The lecture was given in Italian with some English mixed in, making it an extreme challenge in concentration for four people who had just started learning Italian the day before. Still, the parts I could understand were very interesting. To sum it up, the de Medici family were complete ballers for about 600 years until their family line died out in the 1700s.
Looks like its time for someone else to take over this city!
The stormy view.
After gazing out at the view for awhile and almost drowning in Italian history, we walked down towards town through the beautiful garden right below the square. The roses hadn't bloomed yet, but it was gorgeous nonetheless, and there was interesting art placed throughout.
Also, the sun came out finally!
Italian fishes.
Suitcase frame metal artwork in the park.
I'm really not sure what this is supposed to be.
Statue depicting how I feel after a day of Italian lessons.
Although we had taken the bus up the hill to Piazzale Michelangelo, we ended up walking the entire way back to school and then splitting up to go to our respective accommodations. I made myself a delicious and cheap Italian dinner at home - gnocchi with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and vegetables.
I'm a real adult who cooks actual food meals!!
I ended the night by finishing my homework (compiti), and then settled in to another night of comfy sleep in my own private room. Buona notte!
Homework is fun when it involves writing about your favorite gelato flavors.
DAY 3 - 4/05/17 - Wednesday
Spritz Nightz
Another day of fun lessons - or so I remember. The main activity on Wednesday however was going out with my new friends in search of an Aperol spritz cocktail.
It was surprisingly difficult to find a restaurant that was a) open b) not too expensive and c) not super touristy. We were also determined to sit outside which was an additional challenge. Many restaurants in the touristy parts of Italy have a sort of "greeter" who stands outside and tries to bring in customers, with varying degrees of aggressiveness.
After walking around the inner city for awhile trying to find a restaurant tailored to our exact specifications, we were ushered into a place near the Duomo by a particularly boisterous Italian greeter lady. Although their outdoor area was full, she promised us a table in the next few minutes. We were skeptical but agreed, and after a few minutes of waiting she made good on the promise. We immediately ordered five spritz.
Maria, Thiago, Restaurant Greeter Lady, me, Verena, Sydney.
Dinner was very enjoyable and we all had fun discussing our Italian class and watching the hordes of people walking by.
Cheers / Ching ching / Prost / Sante!
Enjoying a healthy spritz.
And that's pretty much all to report. Florence is great because there is so much to do, and it is so walk-able. The walking helps you burn off all the pasta and ice cream.
DAY 4 - 4/06/17 - Thursday
By Thursday I was feeling like a pretty great about my Italian language skills, as I could now order gelato completely in Italian as well as tell people my name and where I am from.
After class that day, I went with Sydney and Andrea (another girl from the class) to the nearby Mercato Centrale for lunch. The Mercato is a big indoor market place with fresh food stands on the ground level, and restaurants and shops on the upper level. They even have a cooking school!
I got a delicious margherita pizza for lunch, and then the three of us watched the cooking students for a bit. Their classroom is behind a full length glass wall which is a little creepy honestly because you can totally spy on them. Although I heard that the glass is a one way mirror and they can't see out. Not sure if that makes it better or worse.
The homies making my pizza.
Cooking school.
Afterwards, we went to a cafe that had been recommended to us on our initial tour of Florence called La Rinascente. La Rinascente is actually a multi-story shopping mall in the middle of downtown Florence, but on the very top floor they have a little hidden cafe with a terrace that has an amazing view of the city.
We each ordered a drink and took advantage of the photo op before getting rained out by an approaching thunderstorm.
Currently reading: A Room with a View by EM Forster.
My mom made me promise to read A Room with a View while in Florence, as the story is set there and I had never read it before. I picked it up at a local bookstore and it was thoroughly enjoyable reading it while sitting in the same old town that the characters described.
Shortly before the rains kicked in. Sunglasses are still on.
There were lightning bolts over there. I did not manage to capture any on camera.
View of the square below the cafe, carousal to the right.
We had a full day planned - after waiting a bit for the rains to stop and leaving the cafe we met up with Verena and Lanshin to go to the Palazzo Pitti - former palace home of the Medici family. It was built in the 1400s and is exactly as impressive as you would imagine the house of one of the most powerful families in the history of the world to be. Everywhere you looked there were giant chandeliers, frescoes, and beautiful furniture and art. The place was so huge that we barely even finished the tour before becoming too exhausted to continue. The house was seriously enormous and we only saw a small part of it. I don't know how people actually lived there, I lose things constantly in a house about 1/1000th of the size.
A ballroom of some kind. Very practical.
Looks just like my bedroom!
A row of chairs, each probably worth more than my lifetime income.
This was the music room - the chairs and tables were shaped like drums.
Wooden ceiling detail.
Casual outdoor terrace.
You'd think after awhile all the gold would start to hurt their eyes.
Badass lady statue.
Beautiful ceiling fresco.
Throne room!
Someone's bedroom. I could go for some bed curtains like those.
View from one of the windows.
There is something really special about places that are as old and have as much history contained in their walls as the Palazzo Pitti does. I felt a weird mixture of excitement, unease, and nostalgia walking through the halls, admiring the frescoes, and getting close enough to touch the same parts of the house that were touched by the Medici family over 500 years ago.
After a couple of hours in the palace, it was refreshing to head back out into the (now sunny) day. Walking along a bridge back towards our homes, we found that the river Arno was completely still, like a mirror.
Maybe because the river looks dirty af and no one should be swimming in it.
Another great day in Firenze!
Another great post dear daughter. I especially liked the fact that you used the Genovese spelling of "Cing Cing"!
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