taking it all in.: "and then we can get a dog & name it panini!"

[Wednesday, January 11, 2012]

After a refreshing night's sleep (minus the dumpsters outside at 6am) (except I'm okay with it because it's Italy), we woke up & walked to our school, Accademia Italiana, for the first day of orientation. I doubt walking around Florence will ever get old, but our walk to class is something I couldn't have even dreamed of.

you'll probably be more sick of these pictures than i will ever be of the real thing

via delle terme, our street! two streets in from the arno & a 2 minute walk to the ponte vecchio

our statue friend aka landmark at the end of our street

Our school is everything you'd imagine about an art school in Florence. There are beautiful views from every classroom, pictures of fashion & graphic design on the walls, & it seems as if everything is there for the purpose of inspiration. There's also a rooftop veranda with even more amazing views!

u of i girls on the veranda!

accademia's toscana view

one of the fashion classrooms of the accademia

After lunch & touring the school, we broke off into smaller groups & went on a walking tour of the city. It was great to be able to hear some of the history of buildings, & definitely to hear some of the actual names for buildings & piazzas. I find myself wanting to know/learn every bit I can about Italy & the Italian language/history/culture/food/style/norms/common courtesies/food/puppies on the street/streets/food/everything! I say everything I can read out loud to practice my Italian accent (getting there..?) & ask Alyssa (al-ee-sa batz-a-nay-la) how to say anything & everything I can think of. I can't wait to take Italian every day & know how to communicate better! Italians may always stare at us like we have American flags painted on our faces, but at least I'll be able to tell them to have a good day!

mom!!! the florentine library! i bet they'd love to have you!!!

one of my favorite things: outdoor eating! in italy!

definitely determined to ride that in the near future

Anyway, our tour guide was Alessio & he was awesome! He even stayed with us after the tour & helped us find a way to Ikea (only open on the weekends; hangers/blankets will have to wait), a phone store, & cool places we should go out to at night. He was like our own personal GPS system! He stayed with us so long to the point that he finally just made an X on a map where the best gelato was, gave us his number in case we needed him, told us he really was not supposed to still be there, & took off. If only we could have an Alessio all the time!

alessio, entertaining our million & one questions, naive comments, & pictures of every building/market/piece of food/brick/etc.; "did you take a picture of me? that's just not fair"

So we really loved Alessio. Until we went to the gelato place.. & paid 12 whole euro for a cone of gelato. (that's about $16........) The cone may or may not have been the size of my head.. PLUS it was absolutely amazing, PLUS it's Italy (that will always work). Not to mention, the nice squirt of whipped cream that Caroline got on top was an extra 2,50 euro. Great splurge.. BUT, again, it was hysterical walking around like total Americans, in probably 50-55ish degree weather, with a LARGE cone of gelato, making accidental eye contact with everyone that walked by because they were just staring at us. Could have also been the fact that we were standing in the middle of the street, taking pictures & just dying at how ridiculous it was. Could go without saying, we most likely won't be going to that gelato place again. ...for a couple weeks.. because it is Italy :)

i've heard from three separate people that this place is thee place to get gelato; even "the best gelato in italy!"

caroline's 12,50 gelato, note the whipped cream

but it was our first one here!

& alyssa loved it

After we maybe inappropriately discarded about 1/2 of the (really really good) gelato, we went into Rinascente, which is about the equivalent of a Macy's. We decided we want to have some way to brew coffee in the morning. While going into cafes on the way to school is nice/amazing/what/where am I?, the proper way is to stand at the counter & drink your coffee, rather than take it to go. Leftovers/any kind of to-go is virtually non-existent. Today they did put it in a nice little to-go cup, as we were 15 minutes late to school, but you could tell it was just not the norm. & we're trying to be Italian here. Anyway, among all the labels & really expensive items in this look-a-like-but-not-alike Macy's, there was no such thing as a coffee maker either. We'll see if we ever figure that out... Stopping at little cafes along the way to the accademia every morning obviously isn't the worst situation!

Rinascente at night! I've officially decided to expand the Christmas lights beyond my bedroom at home & decorate as many walls & buildings as possible. florentines know what's up

We also stopped at the supermarket to pick up things like milk, eggs, cereal, & of course wine. Funny having my first apartment or any sort of independent living experience in Italy, but still just part of the fun!

vino at the market! for the reasonable price of 1-2 euro

It happened to be a girl in our program's birthday tonight, Carolyn, & everyone decided at lunch to go out together tonight! Regardless of being legal here, I think our 21st birthdays are definitely still a big deal. We've all been waiting for one date for most likely a while; it's a big one! (Or maybe just me? Prepare for my 21 year old self this summer, ducks! Gonna be a good one.)

The five of us got off to a late start (...post-unpacking...) & went to dinner. Luckily, but not surprisingly, a group of girls also studying abroad were sitting behind us & told us about doing ordering family style, which included a HUGE tray of antipasto, 3 pastas, & unlimited wine/water. Of course delicious & definitely worth it. & after the girls left, we told the next group of abroad girls about it too! I can't decide if it was surprising or not, but we managed to find connections between both groups of girls, as they went to Iowa, Boulder, were from the Milwaukee area, etc. The world is tiny; even in Florence.

our headquarters aka dining room, where we get a little sucked into reconnecting with the world. i'm sure (& kind of hope) we'll slowly disconnect ourselves, but i do want to make sure i keep this up!

dinner at Il Gatto & La Volpe, which means the cat & the wolf

could definitely live off the antipasti alone!

After a little chase -- first we ended up at the Florentine version of Kams, The Lion Fountain, gross bathrooms & all (just ask Alyssa) -- & then finally found our program friends at the Florentine version of Station! Ironically called Twice 21. With lights, a dance floor, & jams like Turn Me On by Kevin Lyttle, I can pretty confidently say that will not be our only time there. What more could you want?! (kidding, sort of)