Pizza, Groceries, and The Arno River

Two nights ago, my roommates and I went out for pizza and wine at a place near the Duomo. It was very good, but I still want to try the pizza in Naples where it originated. I'd like to go to the place mentioned in Eat, Pray, Love. But this was a good start!

Me with my pizza

Yesterday, we went shopping for groceries at the food market. We bought fresh vegetables and fruit. Later we went to a bigger grocery store for pasta, sauce, bread, biscotti, wine, Nutella, cheese, eggs, butter, and other things we'll need. If you walk down past the river, it's kind of a long walk,  but it's worth it because the grocery stores are bigger and cheaper than the ones closer to where we live.

Last night was the first time I had been down to the river. We walked there before sunset and took lots of pictures. It's beautiful. We crossed a bridge and wandered through a couple of smaller shops before heading back. On the way back, there are tons of very expensive jewelry stores along the street. It was getting dark and we stopped at the bridge again because when the sun went down all the lights around made it look so pretty!

The Arno River in the evening

Once we got back from our walk, we all made dinner. Pasta with marinara sauce and homemade garlic bread. We were stuffed by the end of our meal, but after cleaning up dishes and watching an episode of Jersey Shore on the computer, we made room for some gelato. This time we went to a different place than before. I had coconut and chocolate. Delicious.

Classes start tomorrow, but it's a rainy Sunday today. I don't know if we'll go out much, but it's nice to relax in the apartment knowing that the streets of Florence are waiting just below me.

First Days in Florence

Buon giorno! I arrived safely in Italy. I flew out of Kansas City on the 25^th. I was really nervous about flying by myself, and got kind of worried when I saw that my first flight was delayed. It left 45 minutes late, but I got to Philadelphia with plenty of time to catch my next flight. From Philadelphia to Frankfurt, Germany was almost an eight hour flight. It was dark almost the whole time and we got dinner at the beginning, then breakfast before we landed. The Frankfurt airport is huge, but I just asked someone to point me in the right direction, followed the other people going through customs, and really had no problem finding my gate and then getting my third boarding pass. While waiting for the plane to Florence, I met three other girls who were on their way to Lorenzo de’ Medici as well. Once I met some people going to the same place as me, my stress level went WAY down.

We boarded the plane and would have been in Florence in an hour and a half, but the Florence weather was too foggy. We had to land, instead, in Bologna. There we got off the plane, got our bags, and walked to a bus that was waiting outside to drive us to the Florence airport. It was kind of cool because we got to see a lot of the countryside on the way from Bologna to Florence, which we wouldn’t have seen if we had just flown in. We got to the airport in Florence and I split a taxi ride with two of the girls I had met in Frankfurt. (The other girl had lost luggage and had to go report it.) We got to the check-in building. There, we were given keys and a map to our apartment. Luckily, another girl who is in my apartment was checking in at the same time and happens to be very good with directions. (She’s from NYC, as are a lot of the people at the school. Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, etc. They don’t seem to be intimidated by the city here at all. They are fearless.)

So I pretty much followed Meghan to our apartment. We were the first ones there so we picked out our rooms and beds first. There are three bedrooms, each with two beds. (There are six of us total.) The bedrooms also have desks and chairs, lamps, warm blankets, towels, closets and hangers. There are two bathrooms, each with a toilet, sink, bidet, and a shower. One has a tub. The living room has two couches. The kitchen has a stove, oven, fridge, plenty of pots and pans and utensils, a Britta filter, a cookbook (that I can’t read because it’s in Italian), and our laundry machine. The dining room has a table and chairs, a pretty big TV, iron, and ironing board. Outside the window of the dining room is a drying rack for hanging our laundry.

Once we got settled into our apartment, we took a nap and then got up at 8:30 in time to go to a welcome dinner at 9PM; everyone eats late here. The food was pretty good—bread, cheese and meat, bruchetta, and lasagna, and red and white wine. The dinner was fun and we stopped at a bar on the way back. We were too tired to stay long so we went back to the apartment and went to bed sometime after 12.

Yesterday morning we had orientation. On the way there we stopped for cheap pastries for breakfast. A couple girls got croissants—a chocolate-filled one and a cream one. I got something like a danish. . . I don’t know what it was but it was delicious and only 80 cents. After orientation we came back and took another nap. Then at 1 we had a meeting with our advisor. We got our schedules and a lot more information. After that we stopped at a little grocery store for some cereal, milk, and yogurt for breakfast. Then we grabbed sandwiches at a small snack shop. It was a really late lunch and then we took naps. Our landlady came around 6 and showed us how to use our laundry machine and stuff. After she left we watched MTV in Italian. They were American shows with voice-overs so we couldn’t understand the words but we recognized the actors. Luckily, we saw a commercial for Jersey Shore, in English with Italian subtitles. Now we just have to find out what time it is on. (We heard they’re going to film the next season in Italy!) We all went to bed early. I woke up thinking it was about 7AM and it was 11AM! It took me forever to fall asleep though because of all the noises on the streets. It sounds like our window is open even when it’s closed. There are horns honking, people yelling, bells ringing, and other random noises, so I had to use earplugs. I also slept in house shoes because it was so cold during the night.

We were planning on going to the big food market but it’s open 7:30 to 2 and we weren’t all ready to go until close to 2. We called the guy to fix our internet and he said he could be there in a half hour. I had read about a gelato place in my Rick Steve’s guide book, that happens to be further down on our street. We walked there for our first Italian ice cream experience. For €2 I got two flavors: dark chocolate and coffee. It. Was. AMAZING. My new goal for the semester: not eat the same flavor of gelato twice.

Hannah, Kate, Me, and Meghan in the dining room with our gelato

Our internet-fixing guy just got here. Hopefully it continues to work so I can keep in touch with everyone back home! I still can’t believe I’m actually here. I walk out of my apartment and take a few steps down the street and there is a Louis Vuitton store, Valentino and a Dolce and Gabbana. There are gelaterias on almost every street, lots of pizzerias, lots of people, little shops, leather stores, etc. The Duomo is very close to our apartment. The cobblestones streets are so pretty and the buildings are old and beautiful. Now that I’ve had a good night’s rest and I’m past the jet lag, I think I’m definitely going to have an amazing semester.

 (There are lots more pictures on Facebook. It takes a lot longer to upload them to the blog, so I'll only post the really good ones on here.)

Preparing for a Journey

Two weeks from now I will be sitting on a plane, leaving the United States for the next four months of my life. I'll be spending a semester studying abroad in Florence, Italy. 

You should know that

1. I don't speak Italian (yet),
2. I've never flown by myself, let alone to a foreign country, where I'll be changing planes at the massive Frankfurt airport, and
3. I don't know anyone else that is going. (Three other girls from Truman will be there, but no one I really know.)

I am, however, extremely excited for this opportunity. I'll be living in an apartment with other students and taking classes (taught in English) in Italian food, language, architecture, literature, and yes, even jewelry making. I am a business major, so no, I don't need any of these classes (which all will count as elective credits) to graduate, but I am thrilled at the opportunity to live and learn in a foreign country.

I won't be able to use my cell phone to call the states, so I plan on contacting friends/family back home via Facebook, this blog, and Skype. My Skype name is: katie.sommerer

I titled my blog La vita è bella, "Life is Beautiful". The Italian film Life is Beautiful is my favorite movie of all time. It's definitely worth having to read subtitles and I highly recommend watching it if you haven't yet.

Well, it's time for me to make a trip to town for some of the things I'll need. (electric adapters, a dual voltage hair dryer, etc.) I hope you'll all continue to check on my blog, and I'll try to keep it updated (including pictures) once I get to Florence.

Ciao!