I arrived in Florence a week ago, and the time has flown! So much has happened in the past week (traveling to Florence, orientation, getting lost in the city, first day of classes…), but I wanted to wait for everything to be settled before I started posting about it all. Here’s a rundown of the past week (first, I should mention that I have photos, but my shoddy Internet connection in my apartment won’t let me upload them right now, so enjoy my Facebook album of the photos I have so far). Here we go!

Monday: Spent the day traveling to Florence. After a 7.5 hour plane ride from Philadelphia to the Heathrow Airport in London with my travel companion Clare (by the way, Penn Staters, check out the in-flight snack we got on the plane, it’s the second photo in the album), we spent four hours in the airport where we met some other students who were going to Rome and Spain. It was about this point that it really started to hit me that I’d be in a foreign country for four months and I was getting a little anxious (though still excited), so it was nice to talk to these students and find that we were all feeling the same way. Clare and I flew for 2 hours to the airport in Rome, where we parted ways and I began my solo journey to Florence.

It was at this point that I was the most anxious, probably because after I left Clare, I truly was alone in a country whose language I didn’t speak with no way of contacting people I knew. I was planning on taking a train from the airport to the train station, but when I went to buy a ticket, I was told that a bus was leaving in a few minutes and that it was faster and cheaper than the train. Being the naive new arrival that I was and not sticking with what I knew, I figured taking the bus sounded better in everyway than taking the train. It turns out the “bus” was a van driven by some guy who picks random people up and asks where they want to go. It was sketchy, but I made friends with another American girl (who was also eventually traveling to Florence, though staying in Rome for the night).

We got to the train station around 8:00PM, where I quickly found the ticket booth and asked for the next train to Florence. I got my ticket, but, seeing as it was in Italian and I don’t speak the language, I thought the train was leaving at 9:45PM. It turns out it was leaving at 8:15PM, and I realized this at 8:13, so I quickly had to find from which track it was leaving (because I couldn’t understand it on the ticket). By some miracle, I found it just in time, hopped on, then, after the train left the station, realized I was sitting in first class with a second class ticket. I spent the whole train ride looking up “I’m sorry” and reading the train section of “Rick Steve’s Italian Phrases,” a book of useful Italian phrases for travelers while worrying I would be kicked off the train. Once again, by some other miracle, the conductor didn’t realize my mistake, and I made it to the Florence train station just fine.

Once at the train station, I hailed a taxi, and, using the phrases I had just learned in “Rick Steve’s Italian,” asked the driver in Italian to take me to my hotel (unfortunately, once he began speaking to me in Italian, I had to confess I didn’t know any). I stayed in the Grand Hotel Cavour, a very nice hotel (photos in Facebook album). And so ended my travels to Florence and began my life in Italy.

Tuesday: I was the first to arrive at my apartment, which I am sharing with seven other guys (five other Penn State students and two UConn students). Our apartment takes up the whole second floor of the apartment building and is conveniently located literally right around the corner from Palazzo Rucellai, our school (also, it’s above La Spada, considered by locals to be one of the best restaurants in Florence). We picked our rooms (I’m sharing a room with a fellow Penn Stater, Dylan, while two other guys also share a room and everyone else gets a room for themselves). We also met a lot of other students attending Palazzo Rucellai at the Duomo to go buy phones. We ended up not getting phones because we were told they were cheaper at another store, but it was still nice to meet a few people from the program and walk around the city a bit. After unpacking and showering, we all went to bed because everyone was jet-lagged (everyone else arrived in Italy that morning).

Wednesday: We spent the day trying to get our bearings within the city. We walked around and found landmarks (the Arno River, the Ponte Vecchio, and the Duomo, to name the main ones) with which to orient ourselves. We didn’t go anywhere in particular, we just tried to get a feel for the city. We also ate lunch at a small pizza place and at the time thought it was pretty good, though now that we’ve eaten at other places, realize it was pretty bad pizza for Florence. That just goes to show you how good the food is in Italy. We also went to the supermarket to get food, though were surprised to find that everything came in much smaller portions than in America. It turns out that Italians make frequent trips to get food, like every other day or so, in order for the food to be fresh. This makes sense, though we run out of food quickly at the apartment and are usually very hungry.

Thursday: The first day of orientation. We met at an old building from the Middle Ages called the Palagio (and got quite lost on the way), and learned about housing and safety. After that was done, we went to get phones again (successful, this time!) and walked around the city a bit more. We ate at a restaurant across the street from the phone store and all got calzones, which were the best calzones we’d ever eaten (granted, we only had places like State College’s D.P. Dough to compare it to).

Friday: Day two of orientation. We met once again at the Palagio, this time more sure of where we were going. We met the faculty and staff of Palazzo Rucellai, learned about things like the bursar, school events and trips, student services, etc. We also went on a tour from Palazzo Rucellai to another building that some of our classes would be in, Palazzo Bagagli. At the end of the tour, three of my roommates and I saw this big beautiful hill with stairs leading up it on the other side of the Arno (“the river,” as we all call it). We decided to climb this hill, so we made our way over the bridge to the other side of the river (which is generally thought of as the more Italian and less tourist-y side) and found that the hill was part of the Giardino di Bolbodi, so we entered and proceeded to climb. What we found was one of the most spectacular views of Florence (see the pictures in the Facebook album). We ended up getting split up (two of us walked back into the city while the other two walked towards the countryside), and my roommate, Alex, and I went to the Italian supermarket, which was much less American-ized than the one we had went to on Wednesday. They had much different food there: a lot more pasta, Italian brands rather than just “Italian-ized” brands, no signs in English, etc. It was a great experience though. We then crossed the Ponte Vecchio and went back to the apartment, where we had an apartment check with one of the faculty members of Palazzo Rucellai. That night, we ate at La Spada, the restaurant right below us, and it was delicious (I got some sort of pasta with salmon and caviar). The waiter even gave us a discount for going to Palazzo Rucellai!

Saturday: This was the day we bought our textbooks and signed up for activities and trips. The original plan was for all of us (all the guys in my apartment) to get up early and get in line before everyone else so we could sign up for all the trips and activities we wanted, but another round of jet lag, combined with our exhaustion from the past few days, made us so tired that we did not wake up until 10AM. Then plan was to then go get our textbooks and then go back to bed, though the whole process took over 3 hours. We ended up signing up for going to the opera and Pisa/Lucca. Once we got back to the apartment, we all rested until we went to dinner. We planned on going to Gusta Pizza (once again, across the bridge), which we were told is one of the best pizza places in Florence; however, for some reason this was not the day that any of our plans worked out, and we ended up getting there before it opened (We got there at 6:15PM, and Italians don’t eat until later, like 8PM). Half of us ended up going to another pizza place, while the other half waited for Gusta Pizza to open. Both groups were very satisfied with the food we got.

Sunday: Sunday was a free day, and most of my roommates slept in past noon because they had stayed up late to watch the Broncos/Patriots game, which was shown at 2AM in Italy. Because of this, Dylan and I decided to go get breakfast (which, I should mention here, we had not yet had while in Florence, we had only eaten lunch and dinner because breakfast is not a big deal in Italy). Dylan had said he had heard of a bakery that sold very good bagels, so we crossed the bridge to get there. We got lost and couldn’t find it, so we wandered around for an hour or so (until about 2PM) before getting to Gusta Pizza and deciding to try that since our friends had liked it so much the night before. We sat with a lovely Canadian couple (the place was so crowded that they sat people wherever there were seats) who talked to us about their experiences in Italy since their son lived there (though they seemed none to please with this nor with being in Italy). The pizza, as expected, was excellent. When we got back to the apartment, we hung out until our roommates woke up, which was right before dinnertime. By the time everyone showered and dressed, it was time to eat, so we went to Marione’s, another place recommended to us. The meal we got at Marione’s is one of the best I’ve ever eaten in my life. The bread was amazing, the wine was amazing, the lasagna was amazing, the chocolate cake was amazing (though it’s tough to call it cake, more like just pure chocolate mousse in a triangle). After eating, we went back to the apartment, and I went to bed early to be ready for my first day of classes.

Monday: Today was the first day of classes. All eight guys in my apartment have class at 9AM, and we all woke up at 8AM, so that hour was fun while we were all trying to get a shower. All of my classes seem very interesting and unique. For my first class of the day, Art in Florence, we walked around Florence and got a basic idea of architecture and buildings in the city, when they were built, their design style, etc. We’ll be walking around the city almost every day the class meets (Mondays and Wednesdays). My second class was Leonardo da Vinci, my favorite historical person. Da Vinci is such an interesting person to learn about, and the professor is very passionate about the subject. I then had a two and a half hour break before my Family Business in Italy class. I also had my first Italian language class, which seems like it will be a lot of fun because the professor has a lot of energy. In all my courses, we will be taking frequent trips to places in and around Florence (for my da Vinci class, we’re even going to Milan!). My classes end at 6PM every day, though today did not seem long like I expected. Tomorrow, I only have two classes which don’t start until 1PM, so I get to sleep in.

Well, that’s mostly everything from the first week. I should note that I have not felt homesick at all since the first night, and am enjoying Florence and the people I am with quite a lot! This whole experience has been interesting and exciting so far, with a lot of unexpected yet fun things happening (such as constantly getting lost and discovering new parts of the city). Nearly everyone speaks English, which makes it much easier and relieves my main pre-trip anxiety over the fact that I don’t speak Italian. However, I definitely want to learn, and several people (true Italians, too!) have mistaken me for a European (one man said, “I thought you were European. Not Italian, you don’t look Italian. But I figured you were a European who spoke Italian”).

Whew, that’s a long post. I promise not all of my posts will be that long, but I figured the first week was unique and important. From now on I’ll stick to posting about individual trips and interesting situations. Also, hopefully I can get pictures up soon! Thanks for sticking with this long-winded post, guys, and check back soon for updates!

Location: Florence, Italy