Week 2: 09/02 - 09/08
Primo Giorno!
Primo Giorno Dell'Ultimo Anno! (First Day of Senior Year!)
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been an entire week!
This Monday, we set out to accomplish some errands and continue exploring the other side of the river. After the nonnegotiable cappuccino and croissant (which are called cornettos in Italian) we set off across the bridge and got started. I dropped by an art store called Salvini and grabbed a few supplies for my first class starting on Wednesday, and then I met up with two of my roommates, Virginia and Taylor. Together, we asked multiple locals in choppy Italian where we could find an adaptor called a “Schuko” which is required for all larger appliances like hair dryers and microwaves here. Our luck brought us to Tutto 99 Cent Store, and we grabbed two.
Saw this fellow at Tutto! He is a twin to my sister's dog, Remi!
Although Italians typically shy away from eating lunch, we haven’t shed our American ways yet, so we grabbed paninis around 2pm. We were able to order pretty easily with new learned phrases like “vorrei,” and “per mi,” but we could not figure out what rucola meant on the menu. On Google, rucola translates to “rocket salad.” We asked the server for help, and he just kind of waved his hands around and muttered Italian for a few seconds. I was too embarrassed to continue, so I just nodded and waited. Turns out that it’s arugula! I guess the words are similar so it makes sense after all.
My roommate, Taylor, enjoying the panini!
After lunch, we dropped some things off at the apartment and then I set off to explore on my own and spend some time writing. I am so charmed by our quieter side of town: there are several independent stores with far cheaper prices than at the city center, and I saw almost no tourists. After picking up a pineapple juice, I wandered and found the public park, Giardini Bobolini, and hid from the sun under a tree. It was a very nice hour or so spent feeling a little more normal and a little more at home. I even came across a polleria just by the apartment on the way home: it’s a butcher shop, so it’s nice to know that we can head over to grab something for dinner very easily.
In the evening, my roommates and I decided to head out in search of gelato. Brelan introduced us to Sbrino, a local shop near our apartment with the cheapest and best-tasting gelato that we’ve had so far. It was only 3 euros for a cup, as opposed to the 7 we paid a few nights ago by the Duomo. I got dark chocolate and cinnamon, which were perfect and homemade and exactly what Italian gelato seems like it should be.
Wednesday: the First Day of Class! In Italian, it’s called Primo Giorno dell Scuola! My international university operates on a bit of a funny schedule: in an effort to familiarize us with the area and a specific set of people, we have one intensive class everyday for the first three weeks. My intensive is Florence Sketchbook. (Yes, I agree that it doesn’t sound like a real class!) Everyday, we are meeting at 3:30 and walking to different locations to draw and make our way through our textbook on “Street Architecture and People in Motion.”
Today, we gathered at the university garden and were met with a Scottish-Italian twenty-something grad student smoking a cigarette under a potted tree. Caterina, as we were later introduced, is a masters student in Florence and our adjunct professor for the next few weeks. She guided our small-ish group over to Piazze Ciompi, where we spread out and introduced ourselves before going over the basics of line drawing. After completing a few exercises, she released us to find a subject to draw for 30 minutes, and then another for an hour.
The charm of a piazza is hard to ignore: the caffe behind us is full of peals of laughter and Italian chatter; a child shrieks and runs away from his exhausted mother, a man guides his free-roaming cats for a walk outside by calling “ciao ciao!” to them; another man serenades us with his accordion and then sticks his expectant hand in our faces, hoping that a student might have a euro or two. It’s quite nice to think that we will be spending the next three weeks in this way, drawing and watching and listening.
On Friday, I decided to spend the day exploring more of the city center. After grabbing my cappuccino and cornetto, I headed to Mercato Centrale, the market in (aptly) the center of the city. Although most of the wares sold here were the same as San Lorenzo, it is held inside a two-story warehouse building and it feels completely different. Cheaper vendors form tunnels around the entrances with canvas-bound wagons heaped with questionable leather bags. If you can make it past them unscathed (I may or may not have bought a little gift for someone) then you’ll make it inside to the first floor, where the food vendors await. Fresh meat, cheese, pasta, and produce are stacked in bins everywhere you turn. Then, the second floor holds all of the cafes and prepared food vendors.
After laying on eyes on everything I could manage, I shopped around a little more and then headed to class. Today we did sketches on my side of the river in the Piazza Santo Spirito.
On Saturday morning, Brelan, Virginia, and I woke up at 6:15 to head over to the train station. After meeting up with our fourth traveler, Lily, we grabbed cappuccinos and checked the departures board for our first train. The Italian rail system is fast-paced and confusing, but it did end up being really convenient. We made it onto our first train, and then got off at Pisa Centrale to connect to our second one. When we got to our new platform, we got onto the second train, not realizing that it was the wrong one. It turns out that the trains only stop at a platform for about 2 minutes, so we got on the one just a few minutes too early! After meeting our train at the next station, we were back on track to get to Cinque Terre by 10:30.
The first sight of the beach at Monterosso!
I can’t describe how it felt to start seeing the enormous Italian mountains give way to the Mediterranean Sea. Once we hopped off the train at Monterosso, we followed the throng of people down to the beach and grabbed a set of chairs in the front row for 12 euros. Now that we had established a home base, we squeezed on some sunscreen and started enjoying our perfect day. It was about 85 and sunny, and the water was the perfect temperature. We grabbed paninis for lunch, laid out and tanned, and even got some gelato before our 6:15 train home. This was undoubtedly my favorite day that we’ve spent in Italy so far.
Sunday! We woke up pretty late to recover from yesterday’s big adventure. Virginia and I headed over to Piazza Santo Spirito for the Sunday market. There seemed to be almost double the vendors today as there were last Sunday, so we walked around for about an hour inspecting wares. It’s gotten a lot easier to tell quality from crap as we’ve seen more of these tents; all kinds of people were selling cheap jewelry and fake designer bags. There were a few pieces that tempted me, though: one woman was selling handmade coral necklaces that she and her husband made. They were stunning and my favorite color, but they were unfortunately 65 euros. Too much! I also enjoyed a woman’s honey stand (dying to know if Italian honey tastes any different) and another woman’s homemade pesto and tomato sauce. I did grab a 5 euro skirt from a vintage stand, though. Maybe you’ll see it in some future photos!
As I was leaving the market today, I decided to pop over to the candy stall and grab a few pieces of Italian candy (because of course). A woman and I stood next to each other, picking out various pieces, but then when her husband started chatting to her, I thought I was going crazy. Was I hearing Jeff Goldblum behind me, offering his opinion on gummy candies? As you can see from the picture, I actually was! We chatted for a few minutes and I learned that he lives here in Italy with his wife and children. I told him about my study abroad program, and he agreed that Florence was a fantastic city to study art in. He was incredibly nice, and seemed very at home in our neighborhood. What a funny little moment!
I’m spending the rest of my day in the apartment as it’s raining, and I have a bit of homework to do. I’m thrilled to get started with another week tomorrow.
Bye for now!!
Charlotte