First Week

I should have gotten to this earlier, but enjoying exploring here and settling in got me here a week late.

After 4 days in California for the Rose Bowl and two quick days at home I left DC on Thursday January 6. The trip to the airport had plenty of excitement as my Family and I saw Alex Ovechkin and Semyon Varlamov in the International terminal of Dulles. On top of that there was a "suspicious package" found in the airport resulting in one terminal being completely evacuated and my flight being delayed about 2 hours, meaning I would miss my connecting flight. To make the traveling even worse when I made it to Florence one of my checked bags was lost, which I didn't get for 4 days. I arrived at our villa and Could hardly believe I was going to be living there for the next four months. The First night we went out in Sesto Fiorentino and found an Irish pub called Drunk, which was perfect but I wish there was a drink cheaper than 5 euro. After getting Oriented at the Villa all day we headed to Florence for the night and these Kids we started talking to on the bus told us to go to the Club Space. The next day we had our first walking tour of Florence which was great, our Art History Professor knows everything. Went to bed early that night to catch up on lost sleep over the past week and a half.

First week of classes, and they all seem much more laid back than Madison as the professors understand classes are not the reason we came to Florence. Italian will be the most difficult. Went into Florence on Wednesday night, and then again for class on Thursday, as we have onsite Art History visits each Week. Saw the Medici Palace and Cathedral, and tagged along with the other art history class to the Duomo. Friday we had a scheduled day trip to Siena and San Gimignano. Siena was a major Italian city until the Plague, and was never able to recover and compete in the Italian Political economical and military realm the way like its pre Plague days. San Gimignano is an medieval town famous for its many towers and home to the worlds best Gelato, which was closed when were there. Went out in Florence the next two nights, and on Saturday had a phenomenal meal at Buca Mario.