Settling Into Florence, Night One

After we arrived in Firenze (Florence, I will use them interchangeably), our buses dropped us off in a section of town on the West Side, and we started the process of hailing taxis for the trips to our apartments. Lorenzo, the director of the study abroad center (CAPA) I am studying at, was in charge of hailing the cabs, and the process was a long and by no means smooth process. There was a sizeable fashion show in Florence on the night of our arrival, and most of the cabs were busy catering to the throngs of people exiting from the show (we arrived late in the evening). We knew who we would be housed with, and my two roommates, Jeff and JP, and I patiently waited for a taxi, while most of the female students were shuttled off first. We eventually hailed a small Fiat cab, dumped our luggage in the back, and the luggage that didn't fit was nestled in our laps.

My first experience in Italian traffic, aside from the bus, was an enjoyable one. Cars, scooters, and bikes travel inches away from each other, and traffic generally moves very smoothly. Cab drivers in Italy are paid extremely well, and there is no need to tip them - the process of becoming a cab driver is extremely political, with the cost of a cab license being in the six figures. So, if you know somebody, you can be a cab driver and earn good wages. If you don't have connections, you find other means of employment.

We were dropped off outside our apartment, and our landlord and his wife were waiting for us. Neither spoke English well, but the wife could understand very basic phrases. Our Italian was not good enough to effectively communicate, so they showed us around our apartment, and we conversed in a mixture of Italian, Spanish, and English. They were friendly folks, and explained to us that the most important rule was to keep quiet, as the people in our building wake early and need every bit of their sleep.

Our apartment is nice. It's a two bedroom, one bath, with a nice kitchen, a balcony, and another small balcony. We have expansive windows overlooking the street below, and a rustic-looking, Tuscan-styled living room with very comfortable colors on the wall. To reach the apartment, you climb a winding staircase, key open a wrought-iron, antique door, and climb some more steps. The staircase has windows that remind me of portholes, which allow views of the outside from the stairwell. I'll post pictures of the apartment on a photo-sharing website soon.

The landlord also left us a small assortment of groceries and a nice bottle of wine for our first night in the apartment; we wanted a meal, however, so we embarked in search of a restaurant.

A significant difference between Italy and America is the availability of restaurants open late into the evening, and we had difficulty locating a suitable location for dinner. We headed into a local pizzicheria for directions. A pizzicheria is referred to as a 'bar' in Italy, but it's very little like the bars in America. The name 'bar' derives from the fact that, yes, there is a bar with a server, but he or she serves different versions of coffee. The place resembles Starbucks, except there are no seats or scenesters, it's tiny (with room for maybe 15 people packed together), and people are very quiet. You can also order a small pastry, and they provide beer and wine, but very few people drink beer at the pizzicherias. Italians in general seem to drink very little beer, a refreshing difference from America. Heineken is, hands down, the most readily available brand.

Anyways, Jeff asked a local where a restaurant was in English, but the man didn't understand what he meant. Jeff doesn't know Italian, so he resorted to his Spanish skills: "Donde es el restaurante?". JP and I walked away laughing; it was obvious that the locals were quite amused by his lingual abilities. Regardless, a local girl caught the gist of his statement, and gave us directions to a small pizzeria down the street. We had some delicious calzones for €5,00 apiece, headed home, and fell asleep, getting ready for our first full day in Firenze.