ARRIVAL

I barely remember our arrival two weeks ago (was it really only two???) but with good reason as I was barely conscious from the lack of sleep on the way over. I have a few flashes of memory of that first day including 1. Being flattered by the security guard at the airport who
 assumed that I was German. (I hesitated to tell her that I only s

poke English.) 2. Meeting our ever-accommodating landlady, Nicla (nee-kla). When she found out we drink Italian coffee every day she immediately went out and bought us a moka pot (a stove top espresso pot). Nicla is a primary school teacher and invited us to stay with her sometime at her place in Puglia. She is a dear. She also made sure that we had olive oil and balsamic vinegar in the kitchen to start our stay off properly. 3. Jet lag & falling asleep with a cup of coffee in my hand. When I felt the sleep twitch come on and my hand jerked I decided to put the coffee down and go for a walk instead. Our first couple of days it was important to stay awake in order to fight the jet lag and get a decent nights sleep. Mostly, we just tried to stay on the move and avoided staying at home or else it was too tempting to nap. The last time we traveled overseas we found ourselves wide awake at 2:00 in the morning, starving with only small chocolates from the airplane to tide us over until the morning came. Didn’t want to repeat that.

THE APARTMENT

                                        

Our apartment fits us perfectly. I have found nothing to really complain about. No, we don’t have a terrace but we do have two really great piazzas (intersections with space for the public to gather – usually in front of a church) that are spitting distance from the apartment if we feel the need to sit outside. The one behind us has either a concert or a film showing almost every night. Most of the music has been cover bands playing American music, which at 

home I probably wouldn’t go for but it’s been nice to hear something familiar. We don’t often go to these events (since we can hear them from the window anyway) but we did go to watch an old black-and-white Italian film the other night. Thankfully, there is a building in between us and that piazza and the concert speakers point away from our win

dow. Everything feels pretty normal here in the apartment except that there are no screens on the windows (this is the norm) so we sleep under a mosquito net. Kinda fun!

MUSEUMS

We haven’t spent too much time in the museums since we have all year here but our first night we visited the San Giovani Baptistry (the baptistery of the Duomo -the largest & most famous church in Florence). It was a stunning way to start our stay here. I could have camped out on the floor and stared at the ceiling and it’s paintings all night long. http://www.operaduomo.firenze.it/english/luoghi/battistero_4.asp Other than that we’ve been to one other large museum and Dante’s former home.

GUITAR BAR

One of my favorite things that we stumbled upon was a tiny, tiny bar called “Guitar Club” I don’t think it was a typical Florentine place and maybe that’s why I liked it so much (waves of being homesick come and go) The entrance led us down thick, wooden stairs into what felt like a small cave that could hold 20-30 people max. The décor was some cowboy-americana theme. A small stage toward the back held three microphones, a couple guitars and a bass guitar, two chairs, various cords and a western horse riding saddle. Left of the stage were a few dozen pictures of American Indians and various Native American artifacts like dream catchers. To the right of the stage were posters of the owner and his band. Seeing all this in the damp cave light by candlelight seemed both bizarre and extremely comforting at the same time. There was no cover charge for that night’s music but the 6 euros (that’s 9 bucks!) that I paid for my drink make up for that fact. The “band” that was scheduled to play turned out to be the owner, who seemed to be of retirement age, and his friend the bassist. Nick and I were the only people in the audience for the first half-hour or so as the owner, Andrea, cranked out, in Italian mind you, country-western songs like you’ve never heard them including a Johnny Cash song (“Wanted Man”) and a few of the owner’s own songs. By now I felt as if the 6 eruo’s for my drink was worth it. We asked the bartender, Peter, if they had a list of musicians playing to which he responded, “Sometimes they play [pointing to the owner] and…sometimes, someone else plays”. I regret not having the camera with us but I predict that we’ll go back.

ITALIAN CLASSES

On Monday, after walking for thirty minutes and climbing up the 5 flights of stairs to the top floor of "Linguaviva" I started my Italian lessons.  The building has an elevator but it is a wrought iron 1920's looking, Alfred Hitchcock-ish monster of a machine.  It is slow enough that when you press the button to call it down you have enough time to walk up the stairs (and possibly back down again) so I figure I might as well get the excercise.  By the time I got to the top the first time I was winded but slowly I'm getting used to it.  Certainly, it makes our four

th floor apartment seem like a breeze to get to.  

I was put into a beginning class that was 

already in progress. Not having had much sleep the night before, my first day was horribly stressful and I had doubts about going back the second day (and instead waiting for a new beginner class to start) but day two turned out to be not so bad. Besides feeling more comfortable my second day there was another person just starting out so I was no longer the “new girl” in the class. There are about 10 people in the class. Several of them are from Venezuela, two are from Chile, one from Sweden, one from Tunisa, another girl from the States and one from Japan. The Japanese girl and I are the slowest in the class since the rest, already knowing Spanish and French, have a distinct advantage to learning Italian. Our instructor, Enzo, is very gracious and patient and does his best to accommodate all levels in the class room. I think that I was a little naïve about how quickly I would learn the language. It is slow going but, at the very least, I can buy what we need from the market and ask where the bathroom is.

TODAY 

Today is a national Holiday, Farragosto - the equivalent of Labor Day in the U.S. - and almost everything is closed except for the very touristy spots. We took a very long walk this morning up the hills and around Boboli Gardens en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boboli_Gardens, but were disappointed to learn that it is 10 euros (each!) to get in. We decided to save it for the springtime when there will be more in bloom.

In my Italian class we had to write a paragraph on the ideal weekend. My paragraph read that on Saturday I went for a bike ride, did some gardening, and went to the beach and on Sunday it rained and I stayed home and read all day and drank American coffee. Bikes are everywhere in the city and I miss having mine to commute with. I also miss my yard. Here in the city center there is very little plant life and you have to walk across the bridge over the Arno River to get to the greener areas. I find it a little disheartening but a brief dose every now and then seems to do the trick. And rain, I miss rain. Today was the first day that it rained (or was even cloudy) since we have been here. Temperatures have been in the 90’s since we arrived and today the temperature dropped at least 12 degrees. It has been heaven sent.