First Few Days of Firenze!

Ciao!  These last few days have been so full, I've barely had anytime to touch my computer, plus having spotty wireless and trouble with converters and adapters doesn't help.

Starting from where I left off last post, we had our orientation at one of the buildings that is part of our school. (Florence University of the Arts, FUA.)  The building is breathtaking inside with ornate architecture and paintings on every wall and all the ceilings.  The school seems like its going to be enjoyable and all of the professors who led the orientation spoke extremely good English with little accents so I'm sure I won't have any issues with my lectures.

In the orientation, they explained to us all the activities and groups we can get involved in while we are here so I'm going to join the community service organization, the Italian film club, and the promotions department at our restaurant, Ganzo.  The school is also offering a ton of weekend and day trips all over Italy, so we are looking into joining those too.

After orientation, my roommates and I walked around to look in all the shops which are filled to the brim with leather.  I found a pair of embroidered, cashmere, Italian leather gloves that I loved, but they were 40 Euro so I'm still shopping around.  A bunch of the other girls bought leather gloves, bags, and notebooks.  While shopping we also wandered to toward the river and went to the Ponte Vecchico.  All of the shops lining the inside of the bridge sell the most beautiful collection of jewelery I have ever seen, with each shop offering more beautiful pieces then the next.  After shopping and a quick bite to eat, everyone in the program had to meet up and fill out our 'permit to stay' and then had MORE orientation and it seemed to drag on for hours!  Finally it was over and we went to dinner.

Since we were all so starving from waiting at orienation, we decided to go to the first place we saw which was an American Style place.  I got a burger and fries but it was delicious since their bacon is 10x better, their veggies are all fresh, and the cheese is fresh.  After dinner we went back to the apartment to get ready and we all went to a bar in the downtown area of Florence  The bar was packed so we stayed for a little bit then headed to a club.  The club was so much fun with loud American music, flashing lights, and a good mix of American and Italian people.

Today we were able to sleep in a little later before we met  up with directors of our program who took us on a walking tour across the Ponte Vecchico to a hilltop named Piazzale Michelangelo and then a church onto of the hill called San Miniato.  After the tour, we went out to lunch at a little restaurante with beautiful brick arches throughout.  I ordered penne pasta with a spicy tomato sauce which was delicious, and I dipped my bread in my roommates gnocchi forrmaggio (4 cheese) since its now my absolute FAVORITE dish.

After lunch we went on a guided walking tour of Florence which was beautiful and informative, but we basically froze to death by the end of the tour.  The tour ended at a restaurant where everyone from our program ate together.  We had a choice of 5 pizzas and I choose tomato, cheese, and hot salami which was SO GOOD.  The salami here is different from New Jersey since its fresher and spicyer.

Now everyone is home and relaxing for the night, we all feel so exhausted from constantly running around, staying up late, and getting up early.  Tomorrow we are going to sleep in then go on a group trip to Ikea, shop a little, and plan all of our trips with the program and for spring break.  Pictures soon to come!