Day 2: Orientation

 

I woke up at 7 this morning and then had breakfast at 8. We once again sat at the kitchen table. I had talked to Rosanna the day before about breakfast preferences and the time we would eat. She made me coffee in a small pot with a second pot of warmed milk. She also had some small biscuits somewhat like shortbread cookies, a carton of aranchiata (orange juice), a box of cereal, a carton of milk, and a basket of bread on the table.

At 8:15, Amanda and I left for school. We walked 2 miles which included crossing the river Arno. Our morning meeting consisted of introducing ourselves and the staff, Chiara, Alessandro, Cosima and (I cant spell her name, ahhh!). They went over basics, a brief history of Florence and our schedule. We were also given our cell phones and meal allowance.

After our meeting, Alessandro took us on a walking tour of the central downtown. 

cattedrale di santa maria del fiore

in the piazza san giovanni

cattedrale di santa maria del fiore

Galleria del uffizi

Outside the Galleria del uffizi

arch in the Piazza della Repubblica

For lunch, I went to a small pizza place located across the street from my school with some of my classmates. The two chefs were very funny and befriended us. One girl, Samantha, stood up and started counting (in English) how many people we had and one of the chefs started counting along with her. Then the other chef, while spinning pizza dough, threw a chunk of it at her. When our pizza was done, my friend Cella went to get it but the one chef grabbed it and slid it to the other end of the counter. The same chef also sang the song "Old McDonald." After retrieving the pizzas, we sat at a small table and I finished only about half of it. Another girl from my program, who had also not finished hers, went to get us pizza boxes and one of the chefs tried to put a garlic clove in her hair.

After lunch, I headed back to school for a second meeting. A man from the American consulate came and talked to us about safety, then Cosima finished up by going over a powerpoint and giving us our museum entrance cards.

Amanda and I decided to try to get home without directions. We walked with two others from our program, Joe and Caleb, and crossed the Ponte Veccio instead of the bridge we had taken in the morning. We walked through what appeared to be a shopping district and then dropped the boys at their house, which is a few blocks from ours. From there we went through a park, the Piazza Massimo D’ Azeglio, which we discovered is one block over from our street.

For dinner Rosanna made some sort of rolled pasta filled with some sort of light green goo (I am really unsure what I ate), mini pizza-like breads and homemade pita chips. For dessert we were each served a small bowl of canned semi-mashed pears and slices of the pastry for the night before. At dinner I attempted to have some small conversation with Rosanna. While watching the usual soap opera, we saw a commercial about dogs. Rosanna told me she used to have a dog, but it died and that she loves dogs.  After, Chuck Norris came on and Amanda and I started laughing. I explained it was because of the dubbing, and Rosanna laughed too.