Two Weeks in Florence

Florence was amazing. And the apartment was really charming… I was expecting bad, and it was definitely more charming than bad. It was one room, but that wasn’t problem. It was hot, which was sometimes a problem (see Ryan below, reading right in front of our air conditioner). The first night was the worst. The air conditioner was attached to a hose, which was attached to a hole in the outer wall (to let hot air escape). Right before we went to sleep, I moved the air conditioner a little closer to the bed, and in doing so, took the hose with me. So that night, we cooled and simultaneously heated the apartment. I got no sleep. Our stove consisted of two burners that required you to turn the gas on before starting the flame with a match. There was no microwave, so reheating required the same process. Ryan said it was like camping. There was a huge outside light that would go on and off for no reason. One night I actually saw it go off as we were approaching our building, so I asked Ryan why. His answer? "Crappiness." The location was great - we were right on a popular square (the picture on the right is the view outside our window). The internet thing was annoying at first, but soon we became that couple you see on TV, after they accept the challenge of going a week with no cell phones, TV, and computer, professing gratitude for their change of pace. We ended up loving it. We went to class in the morning, planned an activity for the afternoon, went out to dinner, and read at night. We enjoyed our new digs so much that one of the activities included buying books about Florence - one for each of us.














My book was about the author's personal experience living in Florence, combined with history of the city. One afternoon we decided to track down his old nieghborhood. He lived in a pretty famous building called Palazzo Bartolini. The architect had been criticized for his original design, but it soon became a popular trend, so there's an inscription above the door that translates to, "it is easier to criticize than to imitate." Ryan further translated this to, "don't hate the player, hate the game." Here’s Ryan reading his book at Palazzo Bartolini, while I took my book (and the camera) to further investigated the area.














The interaction with people was by far the most exciting part of the stay. We were there to learn the language, so we would use it on waiters at dinner, shopkeepers, etc. And the reaction was amazing. Italians are BY FAR the friendliest people. Love Italians. Hate their trains and airports, but love Italians. It’s what made Florence so special. We made friends with the pizza guy down the street. It was a slow night, so he talked to us the entire time we ate. He told us to come back before he left for vacation that following Sunday, which we did. We had a favorite restaurant that we went to probably 5 times in two weeks. It was right around the corner from our apartment. There was always the same waiter, and he smiled at us when we walked in the door, and laughed at me when I finally got to order tomato soup (they had a menu that changed every other day... I was always waiting for the tomato soup - pictured below). We took a cooking class, which was obviously popular among American tourists. The chef stayed by our table almost the whole night because we were the only people he could speak to. We stopped by an artist’s booth at an open market, and ended up talking to the artist for 10 minutes. That’s how it worked every time we left the apartment. We felt connected to people and a part of the city, much more so than we’ve ever felt even in Switzerland.














My favorite leather albums and diaries come from Scripture, but they all say made in Italy. When I first found out we were moving to Europe, I had had these romantic ideas about buying a wedding album straight from the source, and as soon as I saw Florence back in July, I knew it was the right place… I feel sorry for the cows of Italy because Florence has more leather goods than you could ever imagine. My step-dad emailed me the name of a place he thought would work, so one afternoon we set out to see if it was “the one.” The guy was SO nice, he made the albums by hand in the back of his shop, and there was a little article about his products in Marie Claire magazine framed right above the counter. It was like album heaven. We designed the whole thing… Ryan picked out the color, we put little bars on the spine, embossed our initials and date on the front cover, and a tiny tiny fleur-de-lis on the back, which is actually the symbol of Florence (it was fate)! We walked away from the whole experience feeling like we had something really special.




We did a few things with people from our class. Here we are having dinner… two people were from Brazil, two from Austria, and one from Korea. We had a great time, and felt completely comfortable. Again, we were reminded that it took us forever to have these experiences in Switzerland, and yet it only took one week staying in Florence. No judgment really, just a lesson in cultural differences. We were told that the Swiss weren’t the easiest to warm up to you, but that once you got close to them, they were friends for life. I think we’ve made a few of those.




We went to Sting’s favorite restaurant (I have sources), and had the traditional la bistecca fiorentina. The smallest portion we could order was one kilo, and it was stupid expensive, but, when in Rome! That’s what I say when we have to justify something we normally wouldn’t do. So this night it was, when in Florence... you apparently get half liters of red AND white wine, multiple courses including pasta, dessert and a kilo of beef. It was one of those nights we’ve had a lot of out here where it’s just us, dinner lasts hours, we laugh, and walk home happy. The restaurant was a little shi-shi, so we concocted a plan that would allow us to take a picture without drawing attention. It was supposed to be undercover, and Ryan only had ONE shot at pulling it off. Needless to say, we didn’t execute.













We continued to pet animals on the street. I had to wait in line behind a three year old to get my hands on this little guy.





We wondered how staying in Florence for two weeks would compare to visiting for a few days (which we did in July). The verdict – WAY different. Even though our time there was fairly short, I felt like we got to know certain aspects of the city intimately. When you’re there for a few days, you have to run around and see as much as possible. But when you’ve already done that, and when you have time on your hands, you just sit. You get to see things in a small, quiet way, that you would have never noticed before. We lived in a big open market area, and each morning on our walk to school we got to see the vendors setting up their carts. It was amazing. Each one is an old wooden contraption that opens up into a million compartments and serves as a completely self-sufficient storefront. There are men that roll them to and from a warehouse down the street where they are stored every night. These men are large, and put the weight of the cart on their shoulders (by way of two protruding poles). It takes the vendors a while to set up all of their items, and when they’re finished, it doesn’t even resemble a cart. We got to watch this every morning. Little things like this, after repetition and over a period of time, result in something bigger. Virginia Wolf writes about these little things. “In people’s eyes, in the swing, the tramp and trudge; in the bellow and the uproar. In the triumph and the strong high singing of some aeroplane over head was what she loved: life; London; this moment in June.” Our moment was in August and it was perfect.


Here are more pictures from the trip... we took lots.