Here is a quick snapshot of a very busy street corner on a sabato pomeriggio (Saturday afternoon).
The building in the background with the red dome is the Duomo, which has had scaffolding on it since I've been here.
Welcome to this month's edition of my monthly blog on living in Italy.
For my Italian friends who read this web page ... please don't hesitate to correct me on my Italian, I need all the help I can get.
Comprando una telefono cellulare (Buying a cell phone).
If you live here for a couple months or longer, it is well worth it to buy a cell phone.
The Italian (European) system of paying for cell phone usage is more efficient than
the American way.
Find a store that sells cell phones.
Buy a cell phone you like.
Pay 10 Euros more and you get a card that has your mobile number on it.
Then, you simply prepay for your minutes and it is automatically credited to your number.
Here is a quick snapshot of a very busy street corner on a sabato pomeriggio (Saturday afternoon).
The building in the background with the red dome is the Duomo, which has had scaffolding
on it since I've been here.
This sculpture is in Piazza della Signoria, which contains many larger than life marble and
bronze sculptures.
It is interesting to note the man's hand holding the woman's loin. I had to take a close up
shot of this to show you what is so spectacular ... look at how the man's fingers are actually
pressing into the woman's loin. And also in the closeup shot is the woman's right foot -
look at how well it is articulated.
And yes, this is a marbe sculpture.
I took this picture while standing on the bank of the arno river. The people
in the foreground are on the other side of the river, and about a block after
that is the Piazza della Signoria, which contains the larger than life sculptures
that you see.
This strada (street), named "Borgo La Croce" is near Piazza Becarria, which is about a block from my art school.
Its in the late afternoon and all the shops are open, people are strolling around and
just living life.
Borgo means village, La is the (feminine), and Croce means cross.
It is easy to tell when a store is closed, because almost every street level store has a
metal sliding door that completely closes off the entrance.
This is an interesting photo because if you look in the background, you will see some
pretty big hills. Florence is surrounded by hills.
The buildings you see on this strada are upper-end apartment buildings.
The moped in
the foreground is extremely common in Florence, there are thousands and thousands of mopeds
constantly whizzing by everywhere.
The blue container on the left side of the photo is
a recycle bin. Apparently, recycle bins and trash bins are placed on the street like that
everywhere. When its time to throw out the trash, you just walk out to the street and sling
your garbage in the appropriate community trash bin. Recycling is a big thing over here too.
A quick day trip to Rome revealed some amazing sights. Rome is way too big to see in a day
and I am going back again soon. While there, my friends and I visited the Pantheon and went
to Vatican City. The picture above is a piazza directly in front of the Pantheon. It is
a great place to park your butt, eat an ice cream cone and people watch for a while.
We finish off this web page with a look at the appartmento I am living in.
The pictures above
are; la mia doppia camera e la mia cucina (my twin bedded room and my kitchen).
The bedroom is quite spacious, con un 4 metri soffitto e una finestra alto (4 meter celing and a tall window).
The kitchen is small, but has everything I need. All stovetop cooking here is done with gas.
La mia cucina ha una porta that opens into il giardino.