For some reason I already feel like our time here in Florence is coming to an end. It's already been nearly three weeks, although it seems like we just landed yesterday. There is still so much more to see and learn and I unfortunately don't have plans to do it. I feel guilty about it, but it also commits me to coming back to europe many more times. This past weekend we rented a moped and drove all around the moutains and vineyards outside of Florence. It was amazingly beautiful and I learned so much about italy and the lifestyles of the people here. However, we weren't even 40 miles away from the city the whole time. It astonishes me how much is out there that I have not seen and experienced. It seems impossible to do it all. This coming weekend we are traveling to Pisa and Lucca on a class field trip, and then we have another field trip next weekend, but the weekend after that we are hopefully traveling, and I think right now it's to Brussels. I don't know much about Brussels, but I don't think it can be too bad. I think it's the capital of the European Union. It should be fun, but also expensive. Money has been an issue, especially with the recent devaluation of the dollar. I just read the other night that the canadian looney is worth 99.991 of the american dollar. I couldn't believe it. What has this nation come to??

My classes have been entirely different from every class I've taken at northeastern, which, with the exception of beginning french, have been through the college of engineering. I am finding myself very overwhelmed with my photography classes. I am taking literally hundreds of pictures a week, both digital and film, and my mind is being overloaded. I have already learned a lot in color photo, although I've only been to two classes. I have the feeling that my art history classes are going to leave me trodden into the cobblestones come test time, but we'll see. I've been trying to read and stay ahead but I've been leading a fairly busy lifestyle. It takes me awhile to take pictures, which I do everyday, and we have also been having dinner with different groups of people nearly every night during the week. It is mainly a social thing to do instead of partying. It's pretty lame usually. There aren't a lot of guys for me to hang out with here though. Anyway... I am not sure what to do with my life, and I think it is starting to show.

Let's play some ketchup

I've been pretty busy this last week or so. Besides switching in and out of around four classes, I've been on two field trips around Florence, one to the Baptistry and San Miniato, where we saw the Benedictine monks performing they evening chants. It was very nice up there. The church abbey is located on a hill south of the city in Oltrarno, and it is a different atmosphere. The other Florence field trip was to the Duomo, which was huge but did not impress me as much as some of the buildings we saw on our Saturday field trip to Ravenna. The Duomo is much more interesting on the outside than the inside, but it is still very neat. Saturday we went to Ravenna, a three hours bus ride west to the adriatic coast. It was a long day but well worth it and we ended up making some new friends out of it. Sunday we went with those friends to the Cinque Terre. It was another long and disjointed journey but turned out alright. It is beautiful there and I hope I can get the chance to go back before I leave florence.

I've been to two dinner parties, both long, very enjoyable escapades. We have yet to host one but the day will soon come, I feel.

Today I biked up along the Arno in search of a bike shop I saw on the internet. They had a pretty hip website and I had seen on another site on the internet that they had helped a citizen build a fixed gear bike, so I was hoping they could help me find a decent one. Here's the link. I went, and it turns out it is some sort of citizen office that is obviously at some point during the day overrun by italian youth, at least that's what the writing on the walls says, if you know what I mean. I was very afraid because the place was empty, or almost empty it turned out. The bike shop was closed, but I'll go back. They are open only 830-1030 wed and thurs.

I guess florence is pretty standard.

Besides the language differences, which is a mountain I'm just staring at and putting off climbing, Florence has been very similar to other cities that I've been in. Because our flat and the school are located in very central locations, they seem to be very safe and devoid of beggars and homeless people, which is usually standard in most other cities I've been to. Everyone dresses very nicely all the time, tourists, teachers, students, and especially locals. I can explain some more of the different styles of people another time. Downtown everything is expensive, and there are a lot of restaurants, bars (which aren't really bars but more like a cafe than anything else), and clothes shops, mostly italian designer but even a few chains that have crossed over to america or vice versa, such as Nautica and Diesel. I haven't been to a single one in an attempt to avoid temptation. Traffic seems to be thick and slow. There are tons of mopeds, however. I have been running beside the Arno some mornings and at times the exhaust from the mass of mopeds cruising along can make me feel sick. I guess Florence has a very bad pollution problem, exacerbated by the heat in the summer, and it causes health problems but more importantly damages the beautiful works of art and buildings in the area. Like boston and new york it seems cultured and a little arrogant, probably because these cities dictate certain ways of life that have to be learned and are hard to change or go against.

ciao.

downtown

The street vendors jump on the slightest congregation of people, no matter where or when. The goods are mainly designer fakes and illegal, although the police don't really mind.

12 Via D. Lambertesca, where the flat is located. It's a nice street.

One week down.

It's wednesday and we've officially been here one week. I've been on a handful of explorations around the city but nothing significant, and certainly nothing that you would waste time on when vacationing here. I haven't even been to a single museum yet, although I've been sort of waiting to visit them with our Early Renaissance art history class, since I'll learn more and save some money. I've been having fun though, and getting more comfortable speaking to people and navigating the streets. Sorry I don't "blog" much, I'm having a little trouble getting into it.

First Impressions

I know this is sort of late, but I feel like I should put down my first impressions of Florence.


Florence, and even Italy, was not as I expected. In my thoughts of the future I had seen rolling countryside, sparsely decorated with the small red-roofed cottages of olive and goat farmers. While the plane was landing I could see that the land, although not densely populated, was clearly covered almost completely, whether by groves of olive trees, housing complexes, or roads. I will admit though that even the complexes had the white stucco walls and red roof tiles that this area seems to favor exclusively. It's like everything is owned by the Cheesecake Factory and is fake and forced even though I know that it is real.

The city itself is again not what I expected. In a way it is almost similar to Boston, only in a different outfit. It has historic, old, narrow streets steeped in history, surrounded by zig-zaggy roads that hold everything from leather merchants hawking faked goods to high end designer shops, and all of that is surrounding by the gentle sprawl of society. The sprawl is not so bad as near Boston and seems to be healthy and well maintained, unlike many of the regions around that fair city of the Northeast. We were really given a taste of this on the taxi ride from the airport because it is outside the city, and we came through all the separate regions, and saw it first hand. For some reason in my mind I had seen an isolated city nestled in the Tuscan countryside, still living in untouched 14th century structures. A museum city. I prefer the actual Florence. Yes it's old, but it's fresh and is still a metropolis. I am very eager to explore it, to find a bicycle (which are everywhere) and ride the streets late at night and see the real people of the city. Trying to go to sleep the first night was nearly impossible. We had walked around all evening soaking in the energy and trying to find a place to eat, and the excitement of a new city, with new haunts and new areas to explore and new people to meet, filled me so much that my mind would not rest and I did not fall asleep until early in the morning.

The first saturday of the semester.

Near Santa Croce. Bikes are everywhere.



Chea near the Ponte Vecchio on the Arno.



Behind the Duomo.

Another of Chea's marvelous dinners.