24 May Firenze
Upon arriving at Florence I noticed one thing extremely different from Rome and that was peacefulness. Rome was exciting but the fast pace of the city made it hard to keep up. Florence on the other hand is slower and easier to manage and not as chaotic. Arriving seemed to be smoother and the walk to the hotel was full of uneven cobblestone steps. The suitcases made a pretty unique sound over them, something I never quite heard before. The first impression of the apartment where classes are held was utter amazement as I did not expect it to be so spacious and comfortable, and after a ten minute walk we arrived to the “bropad” and that too took us by surprise. Full kitchen, three bathrooms, and enough room for all of us to have our space. What seemed like an easy walk there turned out to be challenging for Taylor, Pat, and I as we tried to backtrack our way back to our temporary home…
With a simple I think “It’s left then a right, right?”, we went the opposite direction and what should have been ten minutes turned into an hour long “adventure” around Florence in a desperate attempt to find our way back to the bropad. The way back was also a drawn out ordeal as we still thought it was a left then right so another adventure began. We passed by many areas of Florence we probably would not have seen if we didn’t get lost but this was one adventure we wanted to end as soon as possible. While heading towards the group dinner we got stuck behind a slow moving group of ladies with a man on a bike following them and I am guessing hitting on them. After a brutal rejection, he spat at the one lady and rode off. She tried to say something to us but soon realized we were three dumbfounded Americans and were still processing if that really did just happen.
The evening with Chief Marcallus and the team cooking were a good highlight of this trip and really made Florence stand out. I like to cook and it was nice to actually be able to make our own food rather than spending more Euros. I think both cooking events were an overall success and thoroughly enjoyed them even if they were time consuming.
