Well, the weather kind of blew yesterday again. Periodic spitting rain.
I had my first Italian Medieval and Renaissance Art class yesterday morning. It’s going to be wonderful. We did the typical first day syllabus thing and the introduction to the class thing, then went on a walk around the city learning about the origins for Florence. I’m pretty sure our professor knows just about everything, and he has a great talking voice so he’s not boring to listen too. We started in the ancient Roman forum, which is the modern day Piazza dei Rupubblica and wandered around the center of town, ending in the Piazza della Signoria. Rocky (our professor) covered from 700 BC up through the political “calm” in the 1380’s, which is when they put all the statues up the square (since they weren’t super concerned about them getting destroyed daily anymore). Anyway, it was a great first class. The tests will be hard, but they won’t factor into my GPA anyway so… NBD. Afterward was Italian, and I’m confident that it’s getting better. Alyssa and I meandered around town afterward. We found a cheap shoe store, and I bought cheap cute flats for my currently mangled feet, as well as slippers with flowers on them. Both necessities, if you ask me. Then we checked out the 99 Cent store, where I got all my folders, notebooks, and toilet paper. Yeah, they sold toilet paper for $0.99, and its way softer than the $1.30 toilet paper at the super market. I know you’re all very concerned about Italian toilet paper, and I’m sure you’re just excited about this find as I was. They also had Rasta candles, if you’re interested. Alyssa and I finally got to FlorenceForFun to buy soccer/football tickets, but we didn’t have cash, which you need to buy the tickets, so… we left.
Today I evidently had a big “GIVE ME FLYERS” sign on my face, because I had a billion shoved in my face. Two of them were for the same free sushi, to which I wanted to ask, “What’s wrong with the sushi that you’re giving it away for free?” Free raw fish? Eeeeee, I’ll pass, thanks. During my first Modern Italian Literature class, we went to the library in central Florence (which is right next to the hospital… which is good to know…). The building dates back to around Dante’s time, and used to be a nunnery. In fact, Dante’s wife’s father owned the hospital (or something like that. Professoressa’s voice echoed and was periodically hard to hear). Anyway, you can get a library card for free, 3 hours a free wireless a day, and check out books, music, and movies. Pretty rad, right? Plus, there are no tourists there. It’s all Italian students, which is a bonus for me when studying. If I’m going to study around people, they should be studious. (“It’s repetitive.” “And redundant.” “It’s repetitive.” “And redundant.”) I didn’t have my passport, so I couldn’t get a card, but it’s a nice walk from the apartment and near the Duomo, so I’m sure I’ll be back there soon. Italian, once again, was pretty good. We’re doing review, so I feel the tenses coming back into my brain. You know, like they do.
Colleen and I meandered around town today. We went back to FlorenceForFun, booked the soccer/football tickets, and tickets for a day trip to Carnival in Venice. We inquired about spring break, but they need 30 people to go on the trip to make it happen, and since nobody has spring break at the same time as us, it’s a question mark as the whether the trip to Greece will actually happen. We decided that either way, we’re going to Greece, either via FlorenceForFun cruise or… you know… not. What’s nice about the FlorenceForFun trip is that everything is planned, so you don’t have to worry about finding places to go and stay and getting admissions. We’ll see. We also found a hair straightener and ate street waffles and I got 4 kiwis and 2 bottles of milk. It was a big day.
Now I’m back at the apartment and my feet hurt. It’s been a wonderful couple of days. You may be thinking “Allie, you sure do like to meander around Florence a lot.” And I would say, “Well, yes, it’s just about my favorite thing to do in Florence with free day time.” Took a power nap earlier, organized my new class books (though I need to return two. One we already have in the apartment, and the other has a page ripped out, which shouldn’t happen for the million euro I paid for the books), and made risotto. And I fully intend on skyping tonight. I’m quite a happy camper.