This last week has finally started to feel more "normal". It is impossible to say that anything I've been experiencing here in Italy is normal for me, or will ever become normal for me, (I mean, come on, I walk by world-famous buildings and paintings and local street markets everyday) but a routine has finally started to form. I wake up at around 7:45 am, I hope in the shower (sometimes I have to wait 10 minutes for the water to warm up...), I throw multiple layers of clothing back on, I make myself an egg and toast (not very Italian at all, but I need this little piece of home in the morning! The only thing missing is avocado), and I just get ready for class! We are lucky because we literally get to leave our apartment 5 minutes before class starts, while other people have to leave a whole half an hour early! Anyways, we have our language class Monday through Thursday from 9:00am- 12:30pm with a 20 minute break in between. I then have my Renaissance History class Monday and Wednesday from 2-3:30pm! All of my classes are great and don't ever feel THAT long.
So overall, this week hasn't been so bad! I had my first quiz in Italian on Thursday and I think it went okay! Other than that, the week was spent just coming back from class and getting things done! I went grocery shopping and finally have lots of good things to cook. I even attempted making my mom's Spanish rice and some beans...it turned out surprisingly similar to back home (even though the ingredients were completely different). Only downside to that experience was spilling 90% of the tomato sauce on my clothes, the floor, and the surrounding walls of the kitchen. We had a good laugh about it, though, so now it's just a memory to laugh at!
Another exciting thing happened this week, I met with my language exchange partner! Her name is Martina and she studies here in Florence during the week and goes home on the weekends, about an hour and a half away. She is 21 and we had a lot in common. I didn't speak much Italian with her (you can only get so far with "My name is...I am from...I like...I have brown hair..") but we were able to find another time to meet! and GUESS WHAT! She actually lives on a vineyard in the hills of Tuscany and her family owns a wine and oil store! The even better news is that I am invited to visit! This is my dream come true. I'm finally starting to become more immersed in the Italian culture and I just want more and more. More to come on this experience :)
Yesterday, Friday, my housemates and I made our first outing on our own to the city of Bologna, north of Florence! The entire experience was amazing and it definitely added fuel to the fire that is my growing need to travel.
We got to the train station, Santa Maria Novella, at 8am and found it quite easy to navigate the station and the platforms and validating our tickets. I was extremely excited to be there and just being surrounded by tons of people traveling, with the sounds and the smells so similar to airports and anything that comes along with going on trips, was thrilling! Our train was slightly delayed but we made it on with no problem whatsoever. I was bummed to not get a window seat but I the views were still spectacular no matter where I sat and the hour and a half train ride went by in the blink of an eye! It was much too easy to pretend I was in Harry Potter and heading off to Hogwarts, though. A guy with a cart selling snacks and drinks even came by! I think I am going to love taking trains around Europe :)
We arrived in Bologna at around 10:30am and the first thing we noticed, it was impossible not to notice, was, of course, the cold! It was a good 10 degrees colder than the weather we had left in Florence! Luckily, we started walking right away and before long the cold was a distant memory. I had talked with Alessandro the night before, he has lived in Bologna his entire life and attends University there when not in California, and he gave me a whole list of places to eat and things to see. It was SO helpful and once I had a map in my hand, we were off! When I have a plan and a map I get slightly controlling, one of my flaws, and I was fast-walking us from one corner of the city to the other. We first stopped at the LARGEST street market I had ever seen! It literally had anything you could ever want and the prices were amazing. I don't think I ever saw something for more than like 15 euro (except for the one hat I absolutely loved that was 17 euro and just much too expensive for what it was, of course) and it had my bargain mind on overdrive. The girls stopped for some coffee and then we made our way over to the University of Bologna, the first University in the entire world!
Side note about the architecture of Bologna: The sidewalks are covered by portico's (I think that is the name), which are large arches that create a covering as you walk but have buildings above it. I believe they were made because Bologna needed more room so they decided to build out from the buildings, over the sidewalks, which created those beautiful archways. They are great for bad weather!
We were all in complete awe as we walked around the city. The streets were adorable, the porticos were just unbelievable, the University was grand and provided a college feeling to this town (a feeling I had been apparently missing), and it felt like every corner we came upon offered more for our eyes to gobble up. After the University, we came the the two towers the Bologna is famous for. They were SO tall and I was eager to climb up them, but they were closed, unfortunately. Next we came to the huge square of Piazza Maggiore. Here we saw the amazing fountain of Neptune, the government building and one of the oldest libraries (I found out that's what it was AFTER we had left. I will go in next time I visit!). These buildings are just massive and the magnitude is so hard to capture with a camera! From here we wandered around looking for a lunch spot and eventually had to settle for a little place that was cheap, yes, but honestly not very good. I could tell it wouldn't be great from the outside and inside of the "restaurant" I guess you could call it, but we were starving and just needed to sit down. I had ragu, which Alessandro has made me before and which Bologna is famous for, and it didn't compare one bit! Yuck!
We finished our food and headed back to this little hole in the wall area we had stumbled upon moments before. I don't think it even has a name, but it was this huge room with pictures all over the walls of famous people who had visited before. There were huge wooden tables and chairs and the atmosphere was amazing! Everyone in there was a local on their lunch break and the unique thing about this place is that everyone brings their lunch from elsewhere and comes here to eat it together! You just buy a glass of wine or another drink from the bar and go find a seat. It was very informal but so relaxing and the perfect place to drink a glass of wine and just walk. I was soaking up the Italian culture and I never wanted to leave!
After this we searched for a gelato place Alessandro had told us about, but it was unfortunately closed until the next DAY! How annoying! It didnt take us long to find some other tasty treats instead, and then we were all very happy. We made our way to the first church of the day, Santo Agosto, and I was beyond impressed with how old everything was! The great thing about going into churches is that you are able to see some amazing works of art and very famous statues and buildings for free, without the rush of a museum. The works of art are normally in their original locations as well, which makes the whole experience that much more authentic. We perused for a while and then crossed the city to see another amazing and extremely tall church, San Francesco. By this point, we were all feeling all of the steps we had walked since early in the morning and we needed a place to rest. We headed over to a famous pizza place, PizzAltero, and melted while eating this delicious, and so cheap (1.30 euro) pizza. I want to go back already.
We slowly made our way back to the train station, and since our return tickets didn't specify a time or train, walked into a packed train station full of people just getting off of work and tried to figure out our next move. After 20 minutes of waiting in a line, we found out we'd have to take a train to Prato and then to Florence unless we wanted to wait another 3 hours for a direct train. We were all a bit nervous to change trains in an unfamiliar place, but we had to do it. After running back and forth across the station a few times, we finally found our train and hopped on! With the help of some local Italians going back to their own small towns, we made it to Prato and only had to wait 20 minutes for the train to Florence. On the small trip from Prato to Florence we "accidently" boarded a first-class car that had no one in it. We had a lot of fun with that, and since no one ever came around to check our tickets, we were safe!
We arrived back in Florence, slightly sadly for me because Bologna was just so wonderful and not so crowded or touristy, and climbed the mountain up to our apartment. It felt so good to have a place to call "home".
Today we are going to go to some museums here in Florence and explore our own city a little bit more. I still love Florence, don't get me wrong, but it's wonderful to see what each new city has to offer.
Ciao for now!
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