Saturday Afternoon In Florence

Hello!

It's been a fun few days in Florence! I got here on Tuesday night, stayed in a hostel called Plus Florence, and moved into my apartment on Wednesday morning. I live on Via San Zanobi! It's about a 25-30 minute walk to the main school buildings. It's about 10 minutes away from the Duomo, and 5 minutes away from the central train station here. It's a really beautiful apartment. There are 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a little lobby in front of the main door. Italian buildings and streets are gorgeous. The doors are all really large, and the keys are very large as well. All street signs are on the sides of buildings. It gets a little confusing sometimes because two buildings will have two different names for the same street. The other interesting thing about streets in Italy is that each street name only lasts for 2 or 3 blocks, and the street name changes even though the street doesn't turn. It makes it easier to find buildings and new streets. I love that the streets are all cobbled. You can see the history in everything here.

On Wednesday I settled into my apartment, met some of my roommates, and just relaxed. On Thursday, I set up internet in the apartment, went to orientation, and met more of the people in my program. It's a pretty small program, only about 40 of us. That's in the FUA (Florence University of the Arts) program. SAI-Study Abroad Italy, connects several of the universities in Florence together so we can meet each other. I'll be taking Classic Photography the first session. Hopefully my prints will out nicely so they can be my souvenirs!

I've already seen the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio which are both absolutely gorgeous. I'm planning on going to Cinque Terra on Thursday which is about a 5 mile hike between 5 cities on the coast. It's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. I'm hoping to go on a Rome trip on July 3rd and 4th. It's 250 Euros, but they cover hotel and food, and let us see everything from the Vatican, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Colosseum, Sistine Chapel and S. Peter's Basilica. I'm really excited.

The food has been really amazing so far. Everything is really fresh and natural, and tastes delicious. I've never had such good food in my life. It's not heavy like Italian food at home, which is wonderful. I had a chocolate muffin yesterday, and it was by far the best muffin I've ever eaten in my life. I also had gelato, and everyone who says its amazing has not lied. I can't even describe how good it tastes. I'm definitely going to get fat while I'm here. haha :-)

My apartment is located really close to the Mercato Centrale which is in the Piazza San Lorenzo. It's the biggest market In Florence and has all of the freshest food and produce. Italians generally go grocery shopping everyday and only buy what they need for the day, so that they can always have the freshest food possible. I'm hoping to go see it soon.

I think that's all for now!

Arrivaderci!