Do as the Florentines Do

Many people say “Florence is a small city.” I agree with this statement compared to New York City. However getting around everyday has been a lot harder than any MTA Subway system. In my daily routine I have to give myself at least 30-60 min of travel time. Its easy to walk anywhere, but that is at least 20 minutes from my house. Everyday I struggle to force myself out of bed at around 9 AM and wake up to a simple Italian breakfast waiting for me. The only exception is on Thursdays when I have to wake up at 7 to get to my 9 AM Marketing class. My home-stay family has already been awake for hours, so they just leave me and my roommate the pot of coffee, cereal and some Nutella which we eat with bananas.

I try my best to explore the city with my free time in the morning, but so far the weather in Italy has been below 30 degrees with rain and snow. I still haven't had the chance to climb to the top of the Duomo. However I don’t need to worry about this because my schedule is as simple as the Italian life style, I am very relaxed here. When I get to the top of Via Bolognese, I usually get an 80 cent cappuccino or chocolate croissant from our campus cafe. That gets me through my beginner Italian class and then I catch the bus back to the city center for my photography class. By the time I am done, I am starving because my snack food and fruit won't hold me over. On my way home I'll stop at the famous Pugi Pizzeria, where you can get your fresh pizza by the slice and have an amazing lunch for under 3 Euro.

Living in a home-stay takes away a lot of the pressure of everyday life. I don’t have to worry about what I am having for dinner, or how much it costs.  I can always count on having my 3 courses of food at 8:30 PM each night. After using four different keys to get through the bolt lock doors, I come home to a clean room with folded laundry. I am very grateful for this and I wish I had this luxury back in New York. Although I am very comfortable, the daily in Florence is very different than any in the US. The way of crossing street, catching the bus, ordering food, pushing doors, recycling, and conserving electricity is hard to adjust to. I will always find myself in a situation where I am not doing it “correctly” (according to my italian home-stay father) therefore people will label me as an foreigner.

Italians don’t host many guests in there homes, so cafes and bars are places where people hang out with their friends. After class, I found a few favorite places to spend time with my friends. We recently fell in love with La Carraia Gelateria, and the cafe Volume. Both of these spots are on the other side of river, but so worth the distance. Volume is where we can do our homework, eat and listen to live music. I love it here because after it’s daily happy hour, “Apperitivo” the study lounge turns into a bar where you can meet locals over cheap glasses of Italian wine and fresh olives and mozzarella.