Love At First Sight

Florence is amazing! The flight was much easier than I thought it would be although the 8 and 1/2 hr flight to Rome from New York was extremely long. But once we arrived in Florence is was completely worth the long trip and not so great food. (Note to self: Italians take the term "vegetarian" way too far! I was given a lettuce, tomato and cucumber sandwich for breakfast instead of a roll..)

Our apartment is located on Via del Proconsolo and is just around the corner from the gorgeous Duomo, which is pretty much the center of the city.  The Duomo will definitely be my landmark to figure out where I am in the city. Yesterday, although all 8 of us were extremely jet lagged and hungry we refused to sleep! We started exploring right after we figured out how to get our enormous suitcases up the stairs. Two 50lb suitcases for each one of us.. yea..it wasn't an easy task. Lets just say it was a good thing there was nothing fragile in any of them. My bedroom has a huge window in it that overlooks Via del Proconsolo where the sounds of Italy (ambulances, vespas, the bar downstairs!!) can be heard all through the night. The rest of our apartment consists of 3 other bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, den, balcony, and courtyard (where we will hang out clothes on a clothes line). The balcony is GREAT and is where we had our first bottle of wine together and celebrated one of my roommates, Jacky's, birthday.

Below us, conveniently, is the Cafe Bellagio where we met Giorgio last night! Giorgio is a old Italian man who is the owner of the Cafe Bellagio, an adorable wine bar. I am quickly realizing how friendly people are in this city compared to New York. There are many other differences between Florence and New York that I am quickly realizing, one being the slow pace. At lunch yesterday we could have sat for hours and the waiter would have never brought over the check.  We learned that they always wait for you to ask for the check because they do not want to rush you in any way while you are enjoying your meal. Although there are tons and tons of tourists nobody seems bothered by any of them.  In New York people have ipods in and are ignoring the questions and cameras of tourists, but not here. There is a relaxed and welcoming feel to everything in Italy and people are always smiling.

The cuisine in Italy is overwhelming to say the least. Although many restaurants are expensive it is worth every single Euro! I had my first Italian version off iced coffee and it was delicious. It was more like a coffee slushy but delicious none the less. Me and my housemates also ventured to a grocery store yesterday which was where we met our first conversion challenge: "Can we have a pound of turkey?" Although the man behind the meat counter knew English fairly well he had no idea how much a pound was..oops! Cheese here is also amazing and full of flavor!!

Overall I have have fallen in love at first sight with Florence!