So...back to yesterday, which was basically the perfect first day in Europe..

We first went to the market right outside of our apartment in Piazza Santo Spirito and bought fruit and bread, everything was so inexpensive and so fresh! We got a pretty early start with my roommates Cristel, Natalia, Alyse, and Alisa and all walked to the Supermarket which was about 15 minutes away. It was a local supermarket and nearly nobody spoke English, so I got to practice my Italian quite a bit. We had an orientation at 3pm, which lasted for a couple of hours-it was so difficult to stay awake. After orientation, my friend Sara, Cristel and I went on a search for hair straighteners in local shops and wandered around Firenze until about midnight.

Here's what we did:

We walked down almost every alley, and walked the streets of Firenze. 

We got gelato at the best gelateria in Italy-Grom which was right by Il Duomo. We sat on the steps right outside the Brunelleschi doors and enjoyed our gelato, which was perfetto. 

We walked through Palazzo Vecchio, the romanesque fortress palace in Firenze with Michelangelo's copy of Il Davide with tons of beautiful statues and sculptures outside the Palazzo including Neptune, David and Goliath and many others. As the night grew darker and the town came more alive, we sat on the steps for about 30 minutes to listen to a beautiful guitarist playing the entire soundtrack of Andrea Bocelli. It was beautiful and perfect.

I've realized that walking the streets and getting lost is probably the best way to learn where things are and learn the city, so I'm unintentionally making it a point to do this quite often. 

We went to Ponte Vecchio to watch the sunset over the river Arno and it was magnificent. I don't think I could ever get tired of that view. The girls and I then split an incredibile bottle of chianti wine and took it to this spot we saw jolting out of Ponte Santa Trinita, the bridge we take to get back to our apartment across the river. We jumped onto the tip of the bridge and enjoyed our bottle of wine together and just enjoyed the moment. It was perfect and the best way to spend my first full day in Italy.

Today, Wednesday, I had to take a placement test for non-beginners in Italian at 9am and it nearly took 2 hours, it was 17 pages long. Then there was an oral exam at 1pm, so I had to stay relatively close by. We had the academic orientation at 3pm which lasted until 6pm because we had to do a lot of paperwork and work to get our Italian permits through the Italian government. Era molto difficile. We came back to the apartment and I finally completely unpacked and made Bruschetta for dinner (we Americans pronounce it incorrectly-it is NOT bru-shetta, it is pronounced bru-skett-uhh). It was delicious! I pretty much took today easy because there was so much to do at school and so much information given, and I only got 4 hours of sleep the night before.

I am taking Mediterranean Food and Culture of Italy as my elective class, and I cannot WAIT until classes start. I have never been so excited for school-EVER. 

The language classes are Monday-Thursday 9am-12:20pm and the elective courses are either Monday/Wednesday, or Tuesday/Thursday. I am so blessed once again because my elective class is Monday/Wednesday, which means-I start my weekends at 12:20pm every Thursday, so I can start my travels an extra day earlier!

SO BLESSED.

I love everything about this place. EVERYTHING. 

É bellissimo e se é possibile, avete bisogno di visitare Firenze. É la cittá piú bella del mondo.

Buonasera!