-Today was super fun! Breakfast at our hotel was super nice, like a little breakfast buffet that you could choose your own items. Had my first Italian cappuccino, and it was pretty good! A little strong, but not nearly as bad as my dad's espresso in a demitasse... I could clean my car battery with that. So gross. If they made it any thicker, it wouldn't even be a liquid, you would be consuming a solid.
-Italians listen to american music. All of our music. Old stuff, new stuff, whatever. Most places we walked by were playing something American. My personal favorite was the new Bruno Mars single being played during breakfast. So random.
-We walked across the ponte vecchio*, looked for my apartment, looked around on that side of the bridge and stumbled upon a huge "supermercato" (supermarket) and it was insane the kinds of foods they have in there. Cooking is going to be so fun. Then we looked around for a bank, crossed back over the PV to find my school (ended up just being the administrative office, I'm not sure where my class buildings are), found the biblotheque natzionalle (national library) and it was GORGEOUS, and lots of other random little things. Florence is cute and quaint, but some streets have lots of clothing stores (we're talking designer stores here, I pass a Michael Kors store, Moshino, theres a Bottega Venneta around here, Balenciaga... yeah. insanity) and so lots of people. So it's city life and quaint european living all at the same time.
*the ponte vecchio is the oldest bridge in florence, it connects the Oltrarno side of Florence to the Arno (with the Duomo) side. They have a whole bunch of tiny little stands/ storefronts and its very touristy but very cool to see.
-We then walked to the Duomo. Aka the Santa Maria della Fiore, the Duomo or "Dome" was designed by the artist/architect/genius Brunelleschi. The dome was his own invention, never seen built before in this manner and with these materials. You are immediately dwarfed in comparison right upon walking up, and it is just the coolest thing to see ever. Up close, far away, doesn't matter it's beautiful all the time. Going inside was a treat, since I studied the inside, outside and baptistry (unfortunately closed to restoration) I was super excited. The inside is gorgeous. The inner side of the dome is entirely covered in frescoes, reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel ceilings/ altar wall (much smaller of course but same idea). #artnerd. Check out my "study abroad pictures" page to see all of this! They don't do the real thing justice but I think they turned out alright. I also got a video/audio of the bells going off at 5pm, so loud!
-We later went to Mass there, which was really cool! As non catholics we couldn't do everything, but just being inside there while someone was playing the organ was just super cool. Methodism took some rituals from Catholicism so some of the things (although entirely in Italian) were things that we say in our own worship services. It surprisingly was really cool hearing everything in Italian, its a beautiful language. We kept up in the pamphlet for most of it, Italian is fairly simple to read and to pronounce. But after the liturgy, not many things were printed... people just started saying stuff out of nowhere and we couldn't understand them, when do you stand up/ sit down/ ahhh, it was awkward. But, i caught the important words like Jesus, God, resurrection and holy spirit. All you need to know, right? :)
-Dinner at a local ristorante was tasty as usual omg.
-So many selfie sticks. I thought they were a joke, a myth, not real. Just for really shallow people who take pictures of themselves. NO. Tourists use them to take pictures of things in high/ low/awkward places, reaching around/ over crowds, getting large groups of people in photos, and for a number of other reasons. FASCINATING. Literally, they are so useful. I won't buy one, but the idea is certainly commendable.
-We talked to an Italian lady today, a proprietor of a bakery, to whom we asked what we should order from her vast number of delicious things. She very seriously used the phrase "mama mia!" in our actual conversation when trying to choose the best thing in the case because they were all "yummy yummy". Verbatim, I swear. She was kind of the cutest and it was the best moment ever.
-It was super cold today; when that wind blows right off the Arno brrrrrrr it will chill you to the bone! But as soon as you get behind a building it was quite tolerable until the sun went down. Then it was super chilly lol. Similar to San Diego weather.
That's all I can think of for now, goodnight!
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