Tutti Bella!

And finally the blogging begins.  I’ve had some technical difficulties this week beginning with turning on my computer after the flight and finding half of the screen had become permanently black.  But when you’re living in a city with so much beautiful history, who needs a fully functioning computer anyway?  It’s probably safer this way because I may or may not have already blown up my electricity converter already…

Florence has been a huge eye opener so far.  For instance, it took Casey and I literally 5 minutes to figure out how to turn the lights on in our hotel, while relaxing in couches in the lobby waiting to go to dinner we had our feet up on the coffee table which upsets the Italians, even the intricate details on all of the buildings.  You have seen everything in books and in pictures but when you turn a corner and see the Duomo your jaw drops.  So I guess I’ll share the sparknotes version of the past, wow already 6 days. 

The Duomo

After saying completely tearless goodbyes to James and the fam in Nashville and not crying all the way to the terminal and flight to Atlanta, I met up with Casey and we immediately began wander lusting.  We hopped on the plane to Rome where Casey conks out.  I, on the other hand, tossed and turned every 15 minutes when my butt went numb for the entire 10 hour plane ride.  Then we had a lovely 5 hour layover in Rome where Casey and I curled up under my blanket and slept on our backpacks.  Finally, the dreading day of traveling came to an end at our Hotel Bagglioni.  We had a little orientation and dinner before rallying to the Fish Pub where Casey and I met a fellow Southerner (everyone in our program is from the northeast, and we don’t go a day without someone commenting on how we say ya’ll).   

The next day Casey and I went exploring.  Our goal was to find a little café that Florentines frequent outside of the touristy part of the city.  Due cappuccino per favore!  Our venture turned out to be a 2.5 hour ordeal plus a 2 hour walking tour with API staff in when we returned.  Needless to say, our legs were sore later on in the week.  After resting for a bit, we met up with 2 girls from Washington State in our program that we met on the flight from Rome to Florence and their 4 friends for an eccentric dinner at a trattoria (cheaper that a restaurant but still amazing food!).  The cook kept exclaiming, “Tutti bella” (everyone’s beautiful), and when he brought food out he would belt Italian opera.  I had gnocchi- delicious, and the eight of us split 4 liters of wine for 3 euro per person.   We headed to a bar in the Piazza del Duomo caller Astor where they were promoting Bus2Alps.  Drinks were 2 for 1, so I ordered a mojito for Casey and I, but the barista gave me the “sigh, another mojito” look so I asked him what he wanted to make me.  We’re not really sure what his concoction was… He named it the “Jessica Drink” and gave them both to us for free!

We moved into our apartment the next morning!  After lugging our suitcases (and by the way, one of my suitcases weighed exactly 50 pounds- anything over costs $150 extra) up 2 massive flights of stairs, we found the climb was worth it!  We have a spiral staircase up to a terrace!!  Can you say wine and sunset?!  The apartment is so nice and spacious but very, very cold.  Heat is only turned on for certain hours in the morning and evening so we have to bundle!  Lunch with our Washington State friends took us to a yummy pizzeria.  In the afternoon, Casey and I had a cooking class where we made stuffed zucchini, crepes, and tiramisu!! Everything was delicious and trying to flip the crepes was epic.  

Our terrace!

Survival tour the yesterday morning was incredibly helpful!  We went to the train station and buses, learned how to buy tickets and where to get them activated, our guides favorite trattoria, quick snack, chocolate shop, cheap groceries, market, banks, etc.  We bought some groceries and visited the leather market, where I bought a coin purse and black leather gloves with cashmere on the inside!  We made our first trip to Grom- yummy gelato!!!  And had a fun night out in the city!

Now that you are caught up, I’ll be keeping the blogs way shorter!!!

Ciao!