First Weekend in Florence

There are just over twelve hours left before I start my first class and dive into the culture of Italy through my academic studies. It turns out that I'm actually taking all Italy-related classes even though my initial estimates had me thinking I was barely taking anything relevant to my location. I'm sure I'll have lots to say on the subject tomorrow evening. For the moment, let me recap my weekend with some highlights.

Friday on campus wasn't terribly exciting, but I signed up for a day trip to Lucca occurring next Sunday. I'm also proud to report that our group mastered the crosswalks and I hope that my 8am walk to campus tomorrow morning should be error-proof and that we'll always be on the correct side of the street. Friday evening I had the pleasure of attending the Florence synagogue, which is located only a few blocks away from my apartment, right next to Ruth's Kosher restaurant. The synagogue is incredibly beautiful inside, and also possibly the coldest place I've ever been. Apparently photos are not allowed even on weekdays due to security reasons, so that's one thing you'll have to come and experience for yourself. The services were interesting though not terribly engaging, and there were only two melodies, one of which was interesting but hard to since along to (the tune of Hatikva set to Hashkiveinu during the Ma'ariv service). Services were attended by about 14 men and maybe 30 women. After services, we headed to the nearby Chabad house for dinner. We were warmly welcomed along with a number of visitors from various countries for a lavish meal, the likes of which I hadn't yet had here in Florence. The food was all of course delicious, with an appetizer course, soup, and main course of either turkey or chicken (mine was turkey). We chatted with the rabbi and two Australian high school students named Arun and Dani, both originally from South Africa. They were very interesting people and David and I walked for a while with them afterward over to the Arno river. They sent us back to our apartment via a church we didn't see so we ended up somewhere completely unfamiliar which turned out to be a mere few blocks from Borgo Pinti. Maps are quite helpful, and I'll be carrying mine with me every day.

Saturday afternoon we went with a few other Borgo Pinti residents to one of the walking tours offered at noon, and had the opportunity to glimpse the neighborhoods around Piazza Della Liberta. We were given free gelato and I think I've had my fill at this point, at least for a while. I tried three flavors, and liked the chocolate a lot, found the banana inferior to my previously tasted banana gelato, and heavily disliked the white chocolate. I sampled someone else's grapefruit and strawberry gelato, and while I find fruit an intrusive ingredient in my own ice cream, I must admit that the taste was extremely rich and sweet. I should also note that this gelateria has vegan flavors made with soy, for those interested. We stopped next at a cell phone store and I returned many hours later with my temporary Motorola phone to find that the Wind (a major provider here) SIM card in fact worked and the purchase of a 29 euro crappy candybar phone was thus unneeded (thanks again JB!).

Sunday's excitement began considerably later in the day due in part to the fact that it's nearly impossible to sleep with all the street noise outside. The sound of someone walking or the very angry fighting going on in the street around 2 or 3am last night sound as if they're right in the room. It's also rather cold in the room, so this whole sleeping thing will take some getting used to. Our early afternoon trek was to the train station to take a free red bus tour (which apparently costs 12 euro, so thanks NYU!) around the city of Florence. It was quite delayed in its arrival, but once aboard, it was cool to get to see the city and some new places. We made a brief stop to take some photos overlooking Florence, and you'll find some of those pictures below. In the evening I was fortunate enough to meet up with Laura Countway (a good friend from home), whose University of Delaware winter session program has her in Italy for the month of January. She left Florence the day I arrived, but took a train back today with a friend and we met up at the Duomo and went to a great restaurant called Lo Scudo right near the Duomo (you'll see how close it is when you look at the picture blow; it's right in the background). I ordered my new favorite dish, sampled from Serena during one of our first meals, tagliatelle ai funghi, or spaghetti with mushrooms. It's slightly difficult to eat due to the slippery nature of spaghetti, but it has a delicious flavor. I'm sure I'll be getting that again soon, though my plans for the next few days involve trying the food on campus for lunch. I'll report on how good that is.

I returned home to learn that a bomb was found in front of the Chabad house here on Saturday afternoon. Everyone is okay, and it seems the bomb didn't even go off. The news is jarring, but I'm fine, and I'm glad to hear that everyone else is alright as well. Hopefully, things should calm down and no such future incidents will occur. Since my classes begin tomorrow morning and it's already almost 9pm, I'm determined to make it an early night to try to grab some sleep. My pictures aren't uploading due to an unstable Internet collection, so I'll post them in a separate post when I can. One last piece of interesting information: it would appear that our apartment, Borgo Pinti 66, is right next door to the Slovenian consulate. Who knew?