I went to my first Fiorentina football game this past Sunday! I wore my new purple Fiorentina shirt and a purple scarf! We asked for tickets in the "rowdy section" (what ever that means) and we took the bus a few hours before the start of the game to "tailgate".
Fiorentina Fans are CRAZY and there is not one ounce of fresh air in the whole stadium but it was neat to see practically the entire city together, wearing or waving the purple color and cheering on their team. We didn't win the game which was a bummer, but Breanne and I ended up meeting 3 really cool guys. One guy was from Scotland and the other two were from Ireland! I feel like sometimes the people I meet have more of a lasting impression on me then the place were I met them!
The other day Jessica and I went on a hunt for school supplies! Apparently this is quite tricky in Florence. There are no Office Depots, OfficeMax or Staples here! Where is that “easy button” when you need it!? We wandered into a cute stationary boutique and bought a few over priced pads of paper. We decided to head back to the apartment, when I noticed a little shop across the street that had an entire back wall of pens and highlighters! So after wasting 4 Euros in the first store, we found just what we needed. I even got an error correct pen, but it apparently doesn’t even work. I wonder what the return policy is here in Italia? So now I have a weird looking folder, some paper, a few pens, a pack of post-its and a broken error correction thingy and I am ready for class! I can’t believe I actually have to go to class in a few hours! I am excited to meet new people and experience even more Italian culture!
Its seems to be a typical morning ritual to swing open our green shutters, take a breath of morning air and people watch for a few moments, before doing anything else. I looked up and down the streets like every other morning this week and noticed a large number of white tents set up in the Piazzo di Santissima Anauziata. My roommate and I had the entire day to ourselves, so we decide to go looking for the Statue of David since it meant walking through the Piazzo to get there. We didn’t quite find The David, but walking through the Artisan Fair we had our first interaction with Gypsies.We witnessed one gypsy with a mouth full of grapes running from a fruit vender. It felt like we were in the middle of the Hunchback of Notre Dome Disney Movie! After wandering the streets near our apartment we came back for lunch. What we did next I wish everyone could experience at some point in their lives!
My roommate and I decided to tour the Duomo, which is only down the street from our apartment. We forked over another 8 euro and climbed the 465 steps to get to the top of Brunelleschi’s cupola overlooking all of Florence and Tuscany! Breathtaking, magnificent, vast and detailed are just a few words I would use to describe the view. The climb to the top was somewhat challenging at times. I wasn’t sure how narrow the walkways were going to get or how much higher the incline of the steps could possibly go.
Eventually we made it to the top, but that was the easy part apparently. Getting back down meant you had to leave the same way you came up! The more people that climbed up the ladder, the less people were able to leave the roof top.
The line seemed like it would NEVER stop and I personally was starting to questioning how much 70 or more tourists, stuffed full of Italian bread and pasta could weight? So me, being the outspoken American leader, politely asked the people at the bottom of the stairs to wait so a few people could climb down. At that point I wished I could speak 5 different languages but I just stuck to basic American lingo! “Stop please, wait one moment, uhh, thank you!” It was quite entertaining and it got the job done!
When we finally made it down the 465 steps, we headed toward our apartment, but only after stopping for gelato on the way! Feeling rather adventurous I decided to try something a little different then my normal flavor of gelato. I had chocolate gelato on a croissant from a little cafe in the Duomo Plazza. And let me tell you what, it’s a must have! While the gelato here is extremely good, i would have to say that climbing to the top of the Duomo has been the best part of my study abroad experience so far!
So the plan tonight was to go eat at a place called the clubhouse, which is where LDM was providing free dinner for all the new students! Needless to say none of our friends answered their cell phones and we didn’t have an address to the place where we were supposed to meet, so we never found our way to the clubhouse. Two hungry and slightly frustrated girls decided to indulge in a sugary treat for dinner! J Berg had a delicious canoli and I had a chocolaty triangle of goodness! It was some sort of powered pastry with a pudding like substance in the middle. It was a scrumptious end of day treat!
After polishing off our dinner/desserts we wandered across the Plazza del Duomo to the Baptistery of San Giovanni. I was hesitant to fork over another 4 Euros to go inside, but the minute I stepped in and looked up It took my breath away! “ This was SO worth 4 Euros to see jess”. I whispered when we stepped in farther. The Baptistery is the oldest building in the square and for centuries believed to have been a pagan temple converted to Christian use. The inside of the dome illustrates Biblical stories, which the believer is invited to ponder so he may live his faith to the fullest.
Overhead is a 13th-century mosaic of the dome; the giant figure of Christ and under Christ’s feet the dead rising from their graves. This place was truly a breathtaking and reverent sight. After 10-20 minuets of gawking over the beautiful gold mosaic dome we left satisfied with how the night had turned out.
