Finding My Way Through Florence

Even though I have only been in Florence for about 48 hours now, I am already starting to get a feel for the city. Compared to London and Rome, Florence is tiny making it a lot easier to navigate and the size of the city reminds me of Madison.

The program has finally let us loose of tours and meetings and organized program events, giving us time to adjust and travel before classes start this week. Our apartment location has been perfect so far for exploring. Our apartment building sits almost directly next to the river and is surrounded by tiny ally ways with hidden cafes and cheap cappuccinos.

Not only is our area flooded with cute cafes and restaurants, but tiny supermarkets and fruit stands are also within feet of our door. The fruit is insanely cheap (as in 8 apples, 5 oranges, a tomato, and 2 bananas for 9 euros cheap) and is also amazingly fresh (as in my oranges still had the stems and leaves on them). The "essalunga" super market, which is included on our meal plan, is also less than a 20 minute walk from us. Today we made our first trek to the amazing essalunga. Although I could only read about 4 of the labels in the entire store, I'm pretty sure they had just about anything you could ask for.

I got just about everything I could ask for, except peanut butter due to the fact a jar with about 2 tablespoons was 10 euros...so I sadly passed that one up. My happiness of being in the super market was short lived, however, when I apparently did the check out process wrong and irritated some Italians.

The day took a turn for the better though when Emma and I were able to successfully navigate our way around the city without a map to the Laduree Macaron store and the gym, Florence Fitness, that I finally joined. We finished the night with a trip to a restaurant with all of our roommates that included a full gluten free menu (score).


I am quite surprised at how I have somehow kept up with blogging (probably because I just want to brag about how much I love Firenze...eh details).

Ciao for now!
Libby

(I haven't even mentioned the Duomo yet because I can't put it into words or pictures....)


Things I've Learned in Italy...
-Everyone can spot Americans..way too easily
-Every time I talk people stare
-Italy actually has gluten free food for me
-The fruit stands on the side of the street have the cheapest but best fruit
-It's probably the only place I can buy wine for 2 euros across the street from a Chanel store
-Florence is a lot easier to navigate than Rome
-Firenze and Florence are the same place
-As much as I tried to deny it, peanut butter isn't a thing here unless you want to spend all your money
-But I mean Nutella is sold by the bundle for nothing
-Still not used to paying more for my water at dinner than wine
-Milk is surprisingly hard to find
-Coffee is 1 euro
-American coffee pots also are a foreign concept here