I love Firenze!

Buon Giorno!
I have been in Florence the past 2 days and I am in loveeee. It is so beautiful I want to cry. I live in 63 Via Dei Macci with my friends from USD Kaitlin Cooper, Katherine Braden, Tracey Poland and then two other girls. One just graduated and is taking a year off while she is deferred to Harvard. Her name is Lindsay and she is soooo much fun. Definitely a wild girl, she reminds me a lot of my sister Emily. The other girl is Isabella, she is Italian and speaks fluent Italian. She showed us the lay of the land and is extremely helpful. Isa lives in Brazil and is taking classes here. Lindsay is from Boston and is only taking cooking and wine tasting classes. I could not be happier!!!

We have a little kitchen with a sink, fridge & freezer, stove and microwave. There are 6 girls, 3 bedrooms, and 3 bathrooms. We even have a baday... awkward. We are the only room in the whole program that has internet!!!! I think it is because we live underneath the dean and just use hers. Our location is amazing! We are also a lot closer to the school than all the other rooms, we live next to numerous cafes, pizzerias, clothing, and tobacco stores. We are less than a five minute walk to the Aarne River where the view is breathtaking. The only bad part is that it is sooooo hot here and since we are near the water, I have been eaten alive by mosquitos. I douse myself in bug spray but it has not helped. Very irritating. We are also close to the most amazing church I will ever see in my entire life, the Duomo. I have not gone on a tour yet but I would like to do that this weekend. The architecture is unbelievable. The piazza near us also has a massive beautiful church that I am in awe everytime I walk by it.

Lindsay and I make references to the Lizzie McGuire Movie at least once a day. My taxi driver's name was even Paolo. She also notes what each street smells like. There are different smells every few feet, whether it's dirt, pizza, coffee, laundry, trash... you name it. So far we have noticed a hamster smell and a fish tank smell on a few streets... I wonder which domestic animal smell we will find next?

My first night, Sep.1, Isabella took us to a pizzeria where I got margherita pizza, it wasn't spectacular... I am trying to find my favorite place- I hear Naples is the best! We also went to the market and bought bug spray and some food. In the future we are going to try and go to the fresh food market that they have during the early day because it is cheap and fresh.

The next day, Kaitlin and I woke up early and ventured around taking thousands of pictures. The funniest thing we saw was a sign that had a cartoon picture of the crucifixion, it was for church parking hehe. Then we had orientation all day but I had a roasted vegetable panini that was amazinggg. At night we went to the market and bought a ton of groceries and we are picking days for each person to make dinner for everyone else. Designated dinner nights will be fun! Then we went to a club called Twenty-One. It was free but was really cool inside with stream lights and cool places to sit. I felt safe because Katherine Braden's boyfriend is also studying in Italy and he and his roommate came with us. That made me feel good because I have first handedly experienced the sleezy Italian reputation. One guy at the club put his hand on my chin and said Ciao Bella. . . I WAS GROSSED OUT. Didn't like it. Invasion of space. I have been getting a lot of attention and I don't know how I feel about it. If it is anyone over the age of 25, I am usually freaked out. anywhoo...

Today we had more orientation and then Kaitlin and I went to the 99 cent store and bought some stuff for our apartment. Some cheap storage stuff for our closet and tupperwear. The store was chincy just like American dollar stores but the stuff we got will do the trick! Then we got gelato. I got chocolate cake with chocolate chunks!!! I am in loveee. I am always going to get the smallest size because it is so thick, I bet it is really fattening. And I plan to try a new flavor every time.... I think I will go fruity soon!!