First Day in Italy

I woke up from my first night in Florence surprisingly alert and ready to go. Perhaps we did well avoiding the effects of jetlag. We all got ready to go to orientation, and since we hadn’t had a chance to go grocery shopping yet, we stopped into a cute café on our way to the school. The place is called Bar Vittoria, and it is run by the cutest little old man any of us had ever seen in our lives! We all got cappuccino and coffee which were amazing (I will never be able to drink Starbucks again!.....well, maybe not NEVER, but it will never compare to Giovanni’s!). On our way out the door, he told us that we needed to come back for more coffee and sit and relax at his shop! Which is a nice thing, as many cafés and shops charge extra to dine in. And he told us all of this in Italian, which luckily Shannon understands. I can’t wait until I start my Italian class so that I can talk to him too!

Orientation was boring. I think at this point in our lives we know not to wander off with a strange man alone while drunk. The only reason we listened was the handsome Carabinieri (emergency policeman).

Afterwards, my roommate Julia needed to go get a cell phone, so we hit up the PicCell store. While she got signed up, the man behind the counter gave me 90 minutes of internet for free! HALLELUJAH! I hadn’t been on the internet since I left home, and it was driving me CRAZY. Of course, being on one of the store’s computers, I wasn’t able to upload pictures or anything, so the blog had to wait. It was nice to be able to get on Skype and talk to mom, check my e-mail and Facebook, etc. I even figured out how to send my Verizon friends a free text via the internet! I talked to my mom and turned on the webcam so she could see me,

Funny thing about Italy, sometimes I forget to eat. During orientation, I was STARVING, Giovanni’s coffee didn’t last me very long. But once I got on the internet, I forgot about food entirely. I remembered once we hit the street again, but that only lasted until Julia and I caught sight of the Duomo. At once, we wanted to go exploring. At that point, I honestly wasn’t hungry anymore, but Julia insisted that we eat something before we took off. We stopped into a panini shop and got sandwiches which we ate on the steps of the Duomo.

After eating, we started wandering, not really knowing where we were going. But everywhere we turned there was something else to see: a cute shop, a beautiful church, a garden, AMAZINGness.

Shannon and Marla had already gone grocery shopping, but we still needed some more stuff, so Julia and I hit a grocery store before heading back. We got some food, trashbags, dish sponges, and a few other things we needed. We also picked up a couple bottles of wine to keep at the apartment. Little did we know that Shannon and Marla had the same idea; great minds think alike, I guess. 
We decided to stay in for supper. Shannon made us pasta with red sauce, with salad and bread. She even set the table and came and served us all. She was kind of like the apartment mom for the evening.


(From left to right- Shannon's friend Amanda who came to visit us from Granada, then roomies Shannon, Julia, me and Marla!)

A little later, some of Julia’s friends stopped by, and we all decided to go out to a Bar down the street. We found a nice little pub called the Lion’s Fountain. Hannah, Emily, and several ISU girls were already there. It was karaoke night, and of course, we had to join in! Julia and her friend Ari started off with “I’m just a girl”, and later all of us sang “Hey Jude”, and every American in the bar joined in for “Friends in Low Places.” Shannon made friends with an Italian guy named Andrea (On-dray-uh, and yes, he’s a guy). His friend is a chef at a restaurant on the Arno river, and he told us that we should stop by sometime.

After a fun night at the pub, we all went home. Julia and I did some late-night dishes before crashing into bed. Our second day in Florence definitely did not disappoint.

Not too much excitement on the photo front, but there are a few pictures from my wanderings are on Picasa!

Ciao! :)