Firenze, Italia!

The Duomo 

Ciao a tutti! I've arrived in Florence, Italy where I'll be spending the next three months. Last summer was my first time in the country and I quickly fell in love with it, although this trip marks my first time in the city of Florence. My New York University dorm is incredible. It's located two blocks from The Duomo in one direction and two blocks from The David in the other direction. The room is spacious and we have three beautiful windows with old shutters against one wall where we overlook a quiet street and beautiful Florentine apartment buildings. I'm living with three of my friends and we're all very happy with how our situation turned out! It's great to be so centrally located.

The NYU campus is stunning as well. It's hard to believe that NYU has all of these resources, and I'm definitely very lucky to be able to experience this place. Our campus is about a 15 minute bus ride outside of the city. It's complete with olive groves and old Italian villas where we have our classes. It's straight out of a dream, I swear. It's definitely going to be hard to return to Washington Square in September!

The New York University campus

One of the villas where my classes are held

I have to say that Florence is much bigger than I had expected. Then again, that could be because I have no idea where I'm going half the time. All of the streets look exactly the same, and the names of the streets change so rapidly. I have a feeling that I'm going to appreciate New York City and its grid system much more when I get home.

It feels as though time has stopped here. It's very dreamlike, there are tiny alleys everywhere that lead you to stores and restaurants that you never would have known existed. I love that there is so much to explore.

Chitarra pasta with tomatoes, basil and garlic... Amazing!

Carb heaven

I spent my first week settling in, trying to learn my way around the city. I still have a long way to go, but I am finally beginning to feel more comfortable here. Today we shopped around the San Lorenzo Leather Market and I bought a leather jacket and a fur and leather vest, both of which I absolutely love! I have a feeling I'm going to come home with a lot of (expensive) souvenirs, good thing I have an extra duffle bag with me!

I have five long city guides that were given to me by good friends, and I'm doing my best to cross things off. There are so many amazing restaurants to try and vintage stores to visit, I hope that I'm able to fit it all in. The semester already seems to be going by so quickly. When you factor in weekend traveling four months doesn't seem like such a long time.

I have only had two of my classes so far, but both of them seem great. I'm a little bit intimidated by my Italian class. There are only four of us in it, and our teacher does not speak any English. One thing that I love is that we have a lot of site visits. This means that instead of sitting in a classroom during the day we are out experiencing life in the city and seeing all that Florence has to offer. That's something that I've always loved about NYU, they truly make the entire city feel like your classroom.

After living in Florence for less than a week, here's what I've learned so far:

1. The Ribollita, or Tuscan Bread Soup, is phenomenal. It's a mixture of vegetables, potatoes and bread and is more of a stew than a soup. It's the ultimate comfort food and is in season at the moment so I've been taking advantage of it as much as possible.

Ribollita

2. Florence is very humid and we have not yet bought a blowdryer, so I've been wearing my hair in a bun everyday. Be sure to bring your Moroccan Oil when you come to visit... Sorry Mom!

3. There are a lot of pick pockets here and they're especially present in the small convenient stores. One guy will come up and act stupidly in an effort to distract you. Meanwhile, his partner is behind you hoping that he'll have the opportunity to reach into your bag. I've been very careful so far and am lucky enough to have noticed this early on but I still find myself walking around clutching my bag to my chest like a true American.

4. There are a lot of mosquitoes here, which I assume is because of the river. We haven't noticed them too much but our friends have told us that they're around, unfortunately. Hopefully they stay away from our room!

5. Anyone who visits Florence, or Italy for that matter, has to become accustomed to having garlic breath. Luckily my roommates and I all go out to dinner together, so we never notice it on each other. I don't mind so much it as long as it helps to keep the pick pockets and the gypsies away!

Hope all is well in the United States! This week will be my first full week of class and my roommates and I are hoping to finally have our schedules so that we can get some weekend trips planned. It looks like we're heading to Venice for Carnevale next weekend, so stay tuned for updates and photos from that trip! Ciao and thanks for reading! Goodnight from Firenze.

The Arno River by night