Gelato Every Day Forever...

Did not take long after arriving in Florence to make the life-changing discovery that is Italian Gelato. It is possibly my new favorite food, to the point that we've only been here about five days and I already get cravings for it. Goodbye, euros...

Day 2: Cooking

Had our first cooking experiment in the apartment, which involved making spaghetti, basil tomato sauce and garlic bread. It came out pretty good, considering it was my first time using a gas stove. Also, the trips to the Italian supermarkets (we have been to four now) have been interesting to say the least and required our italian dictionaries. Hoping to visit a market sometime soon.

Sunny and 105

My only real complaint about Italy is the unbearable heat. It has been in the upper 90s since we arrived, topping 100 yesterday. A local guy from one of Italy's many leather stands told us he heard it was supposed to be 105 on Tuesday. He also said this summer was unseasonably warm even for them. Our apartment is not air-conditioned, so there is not much sleeping going on at night. We're expecting it to cool down soon, but the rest of the week will be near 100.

Day 2-3: Walking the city

Florence is a surprisingly easy city to walk around in. When we got here on Friday night, we had no trouble finding a place to eat right in our neighborhood. Saturday, we went on a walking tour of the city, visiting Plazzo Della Signoria, Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, the Medici Chapels, the central market and the train station. The tour only took about an hour or so. Walking around and navigating is unbelievably easy. And Italy's male populace is quite charming and more than willing to help point you in the right direction with a charming smile.
So far we've gone on two shopping trips to Italian supermarkets, cooked in our Italian kitchen, had wine with three locals on the steps of Santa Croce, had our first bit of orientation, and walked from end to end of the city.

Day 1: Apartment

To say our Florence apartment is cool would be an understatement. It's pretty much the greatest apartment I've ever seen. Our street ends with Santa Croce Church, a building that was started in the 13th century and is about a five minute walk to the school. The first you see of our apartment is a set of tall, thick wooden doors that look like something from an ancient castle. We are on the top floor of our building, which is very old but has been brought up to date very well. It is very large and easily houses the four of us. Our ceiling is an old wood beam ceiling. We also ended up with a lot of things that they told us not to expect, so for that we are pretty thrilled.

  

 

Arriving in Italy

So after our 24 hours + of epic travel...we got to Italy last night!
We started out taking the bus from Kent to Detroit, then flew from Detroit to Paris, which is roughly 8 hours. Landing in Paris at Charles de Gaulle airport was a pretty neat experience, even though we were too far away to see the city, because the airport is sprawling and just getting to the right terminal is an adventure in itself. I also got to test out my vast knowledge of the French language on actual living breathing French people, which amounted to me saying "bonjour," "merci," "s'il vous plait," and "six," which is, you guessed it, six en francais. From Paris we took a small plane to Florence, flying over the Alps and the pretty much breathtakingly beautiful Italian countryside.
After a pretty intense cab ride through the narrow streets and a stroll to the very top floor of our building, we arrived at our apartment, which makes me think I will probably just stay in Italy forever and not come home. Sorry guys. Been nice knowing you all.

Help with the packing...

Just finished packing the last of my bags before I leave for Italy tomorrow. Had a considerable amount of unwanted help, too :)

My flight leaves Detroit at 9:40 tomorrow night, I should hopefully land in Paris by 11 am and be in Florence by 6 pm.

Ciao!

Katie

I Have an Apartment!

Finally got our apartment assignments this afternoon! I don't know why I keep shouting in these posts! I can't stop now!
Anyway, rooming with three of the most awesome girls I know. I am crazy-excited to be going to Italy now. Our apartment is only about a quarter of a mile from the school and a little north of the Arno River, between Piazza di Santa Croce and Palazzo Vecchio. I might throw up.
Probably going to update the look of the Owl Girl pretty soon as I get ready to leave.
One week to Italy!

Back!

After a pretty lengthy break, I am hopefully back posting for a little while. Between finishing school, working, and getting ready to study abroad in Italy this fall, I haven't had any time to think. I leave for Italy in 2 weeks!