Anyways . . . back to day one!

I grabbed a taxi from the airport and the first thing i heard was an 80's song! it was quite a shock i assure you. then the cab driver took me away to the Study Center (the place where i'll have to go for the internet). WOW. i seriously thought i was going to be in a car crash. People drive crazy on the streets of italy! vespas drive in and around and between cars, there are no vehicles bigger than a small SUV and even then i only saw one SUV. all the cars are hybrid, manual, and tiny. there are even some with only 3 wheels! we almost hit one car and the cab driver spoke a few
quick bad words in italian then promptly turned to me and said "WELCOME TO ITALY!" Rush hour is around 10 am b/c thats when all the stores open up and thats when work usually starts.

i made it to the study center, emailed most of you, and had my orientation. When we took a break for lunch it was 12:00pm and a group of us went next door to a cafe called La Loggia Degli Albizi or The Loggia of Albizi (Albizi is the street it's on). I had the most amazing little pizza (i didn't know how to say no meat yet so i just went with something simple) it was the size of my fist with cheese and marinara and a flaky crust. I also bought water but i didn't notice the small word underneath saying fizzante. So i took a big gulp then immediately regretted it. In europe many people enjoy soda water and that is exactly what i bought. I know now that i must buy the bottle with naturale on it or i'll regret it later. I ended up eating more (i was hungry) and sitting with some of our group for lunch (our group will always mean FSU students) at the same place - usually you have to pay extra to sit down but this restaurant doesn't. I got a greek salad which was amazing and then headed back to the study center and took a nap on Sue Capitani's (the director of this operation) couch in her office. She woke me up in an hour for the rest of orientation and the walking tour.

We where shown the library, (which is where i am now) which is in another building then we were shown the city led by Mr. Frank Nero, my art history proffessore. He knows everything. just so you know. We walked to the Piazza della Repubblica which is the meeting place for almost every trip.
***** the column in the right of the picture is the meeting place ******


this was a musician just on the side of the road . . . there everywhere :D

the buildings are so close to each other and every building is around 3 stories high



i can't remember who's coat of arms this is but there are different coats of arms all over the city buildings



Then we walked on to The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore or the DUOMO which is a HUGE Christian church. Duomo literally means domed building.


This is the Baptistry's . . . right across from the Dumo.

This is again the Dumo, its bell tower to be more specific . . .







the gates of the Baptistry's

The Dumo doors




These are the two symbols of Florence; the Cross of St. George and the Fleur de Lis for St. George and the Virgin Mary's flower the Lily and again there all over the buildings here . . .



VIDEO:
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee72/skye_watcher/florence/?action=view¤t=florencejune27068.flv
*** lil video *****

These are the saints on the bell tower of the Dumo and the guy who's bald has a nickname testa di zucca or pumpkin head . . .

More of the Dumo . . .


That window is twice my hight . . .

This building is called the Orsanmichele or the garden of St. Michael. It use to store grain and but a unknown artist painted the Virgin Mary on the inside and it was said to heal the sick, so during the plague they went to the painting for help. So they added two more stories to the building, stored the grain in those stories, put the grain market on the street and converted the bottom floor into a church. In 1406 the Republic government required all the guilds (aka the masons' and carpenters' guild, the linen and accessories guild, the armorers' and swordmakers' guild, etc.) to hire a sculptor to make a sculpture of the guild's Saint. Like the saint for the armorers' and swordmakers' guild is St. George. There are 19 statues on the building out of the 21 guilds - some guilds couldn't pay for an artist to they just had to keep the church supplies in stock.
So this is a statue of a Jesus with one of his saints. i can't remember his name.




And finally the Piazza Della Signoria where Florence has it's city hall, which has a replica of the David and the statue of Hercules on it's front steps.
The David is on the far left and Hercules is near the center . . .

this is a little fountain (it doesn't shoot out water there is just water in the base of it)


It was said that during a long and winded speech by the government that was honoring Leonardo Di Vinci, he noticed a man in the crowd that owed him money so while he was sitting there bored he sculpted into the wall the man-who-owed-him-money's face.

A statue guy near the Uffizi!


We walked passed the Galleria Degli Uffizi and stood on the sidewalk next to the
Ponte Vecchio which is the very famous bridge in Firenze that used to be the only bridge way back in the middle ages. The bridge has stores on either side and they used to be all butcher shops and fish markets (easier b/c the shop owners could throw the guts and bones and bad parts of the meat into the river) but because The King would have to walk across the bridge to get to his estate and and the smell was so fowl he ordered that only metal working shops, aka jewelery shops, could inhabit the bridge. That law is still kept today. You'll also notice that there are square windows near the top of the bridge. After the middle ages they built a second floor to the bridge so that the Dukes, Kings, and whomever of high stature could walk across the bridge without having to mingle with the peasants and merchants. Emphasizing the fact that they were above the common people. It also came in very useful when the Black Plague hit Florence in 1348, that wiped out 70% of the Florence population, keeping themselves away from the sick and dead left on the streets. This was before Hospitals were invented. Oh and the Black Plague was when your skin would start decaying while you were still alive. I would start where your skin was moist like your armpits or between your thighs and then spread all over your body. fun huh.



looking out on to the Arno River.


The chain is just on this part of the sidewalk and it's covered in locks. The locks are bought by lovers who sign their names on the locks, lock the locks onto the chain and then throw the key into the river as a sign of their love. Apparently there was another place where they did this but the locks got so heavy, that the chain eventually broke. So now every evening a guy comes by and cuts the locks off the chain and every morning a man across the street, near the chain, sells tourists locks.


That was the end of our walking tour. I went back to the study center picked up my luggage and grabbed another taxi, with two of my new roommates, to my apartment Lugarno Vespucci. Our apartment holds 12 people, 3 boys - Matt, Brian, and Scott. and 9 girls - Allie, Claire (my 2 roommates), Laura, Lisa, Alexia, Carlynn, Kiki, and Rachel. Every room has 3 people living inside of it and each room has a bathroom with an additional bathroom in the hall. It's a really big apartment and it's not too bad with everyone in it. It's really creepy when your alone though. My apartment that i'm staying in actually is on the Arno river but it's 4 bridges to the left of the Ponte Vecchio. Thats around 12 blocks. It takes 30 minutes to walk to the study center and thats only if you keep at a steady pace.

I had a chance to shower and really freshen up - and we all went out on a group dinner (and when i say group i mean all of the FSU study abroad kids) at a restaurant in the Piazza della Signoria in a very nice restaurant.

In Italy dinner is usually around 8pm and if you go out, especially with a big crowd, then expect to be having dinner for 3hrs. Our dinner was at 7pm and we had our first course - which is usually a pasta, then our second course - usually a salad, then our third course - which is usually meat (they made me a dinner plate sized vegatarian pizza- topped with eggplant, red peppers, yellow peppers, and mushrooms - i'm over my hatred of mushrooms now. btw.) Finally they severed us dessert which was some kind of gelato (italian ice cream that has less cream so it's 95% less fat than American ice cream, and packed full of flavor) and fruit - aka a parfait. Throughout diner we were given red wine and bottled water to drink. If you go anywhere to eat you can never have tap water. You always have to pay for bottled water, even in small shops. It is also customary to have a glass of wine with your dinner meal. There is no drinking age in Italy and many American tourists take full advantage of this - its kinda sad especially b/c now Americans are only thought of as rowdy, stupid, drunks.

After dinner i headed straight home. i was so tired but i slept like a rock.

AND THAT was my first day in Italy