Firenze!

The view from our terrace

Finally! I have arrived in Florence after a long, scenic plane ride. We arrived to the bustling city and were shoved into cabs and whisked off to our apartments. After 30 minutes of “jiggling” the key, my new house-mates and I finally got our neighbor to open our front door. In we stepped and saw our new home for the first time. Our Italian apartment was filled with light and the sounds of the city right outside our open-air windows made the experience seem like a dream. Our apartment is located at Piaza Stazione uno, right across from the train station, four floors up with windows that open to a terrace overlooking a beautiful courtyard with the Tuscan mountains beyond on one side and the busy, Florentine street with the tops of various chapels on the other. We settled in pausing often just to say to each other “I can’t believe we are here.” After unpacking into our, hot, old high-ceilinged rooms, went out for our first dinner. Although it was certainly delicious, my excitement, nervousness, jet lag, and over-hunger prevented me from really concentrating on the meal. I did enjoy some lovely bruschetta with olives and of course plenty of bitter, robust, Tuscan olive oil. I couldn’t get enough of it with the classic, Tuscan, unsalted bread. We explored the city for a while and the retreated to our apartment with a bottle of red wine in hand to have a low key first night in Florence. Another thing I noticed about Italy is the milk. For some reason, milk was the most shocking difference I have noticed thus far. It is delectably sweeter, creamier, and more earthy. It was such a pleasant surprise and the first time I sipped it on the terrace of my apartment that first day, it was as if I was drinking milk for the very first time. Delicioso! Breakfast the next morning was simple. Un espresso and pastries from a tiny café on the corner…perfetto (also the name of our apartment).

Chocolate Croissant from Café Roso

That day, I enjoyed a fresh Panino caldo (hot Panini) from an even tinier, more local and less touristy café/snack bar on a corner directly across from the Palazzo dei Cartelloni (my school’s building where most of my studio classes will take place. It was the former home of one of Galileo’s students as well as Mona Lisa’s family). That night, we went to a store called Di Vino, where we selected two huge glass containers and got them filled with local red and white wine from Toscana right out of the barrel for 4 euros. The deal is you keep the bottles and then go back to fill them up so that you only have to pay for the wine. It is delicious and cheap. You don't know refreshing wine until you have tasted this. It was a needed break from the unrelenting ninety-three degree weather. 

During the day, we went on a tour of the city. The colors, the people, the smells: everything was just too good to be true. The smell of leather takes over the city center and the sounds of vespas whizzing by is a constant reminder to make sure you always stay on the narrow, cobblestone sidewalks. The Florentine people are beautiful to watch and as you walk around, there are constant reminders that you are walking on the same stones that were saw the likes of the greatest artists of the Renaissance. You dont just stop for lunch at a café. You stop for lunch sitting outside a café that is in front of the Duomo, the piazza di Santa Maria Novella, or the piazza della Signoria. Oh well. Enough for now. Next I will take on the Mercato Centrale!

Local (I liked the bag)