The 3 essentials of being in a foreign country.
This is the first of my monthly blogs on life in Italy. I've been in Florence(Firenze) for a little over 3 weeks now and I'm really starting to settle in. This month's edition will contain simple pictures of daily living and walking around Firenze.
I'll be mixing a little italian into the narration, because I am finding that
the language and the culture are inseparable (plus I am trying to learn it - so
please correct me if you see mistakes).
The 3 essentials of being in a foreign country.
This is the view I see when looking out my back window. In Firenze, just about
all the roofs are terracotta tiles.
When I walk out the front door of the apartment I'm living in and walk about
a block down la strada, this is what I see. The brick tower at the
end of the block is called "porta al prato". Porta means door, prato means meadow.
So, I guess it means door to the meadow.
However, there is a town I see on the map near Firenze, it is called prato.
Anyways, the strada in this picture is called "via del ponte alle mosse".
After I get on a the autobus and it begins to drive to the other side of the historical district,
we pass by the stazione, which is the main train station in Firenze.
It is a hustling and bustling area, packed with lots of tourists and travelers.
On the other side of the historical district, I get off the bus and walk the last
4 blocks to la mia scuola de scultura (my sculpting school). This big brick tower is in
the center of piazza beccaria.
After walking through piazza beccaria, I come to an almost hidden little street, called
via luna and go to work sculpting and drawing all day long.
At mezzogiorno (mid day) it is time for lunch. I have gravitated to
a nearby eatery called caffe serafini. They serve several different kinds of meals
and the food is great. Top it off with a grande birra, and I make my way back to scuola
and continue into the pomeriggio.
At this point in the giornata, most Italians take the next 3 hours off and don't go
back to work until about 4PM - and then shops stay open late, often till 7 or 8PM.
Two kinds of places you will see on almost every block are; newspaper/magazine stores and
something called a farmacia. A farmacia is the equivalent of a pharmacy, except they
also sell lots of lotions and things you don't have to get a prescription for.
Basically, its the equivalent of the entire pharmacy section in a QFC or Safeway
in gli Stati Uniti d'America. You can easily spot a farmacia by its verde colored sign.
Firenze has tons of internet cafes, and La Ch@t is one of them. You prepay for
internet usage and keep adding time to your card as you need it.
A humble little strada near piazza beccaria.
At the supermarcato, you'll find the equivalents to many of the food items in
the states. Of course, everything is labled in Italian and its a good idea to
bring a dictionary just to make sure your getting what you think your getting.
Milk is pretty obvious. Latte intero is whole milk and latte parzialmente scremato
is a longish way of saying nonfat milk.
The tap water in Firenze has a very high chlorine content and drinking the water
is not really recommended. Therefore, you'll find an isle at the supermarcato dedicated
to water, tea and juices (succhi).
From left to right: arancia (orange), pompelmo (grapefruit), pesca (peach),
albicocca (apricot), ananas (pineapple), and a couple varient mixtures of everything.
I stumbled upon this open air market this morning while on the way to meet a friend
for lunch.
Walking through the winding streets, I found an interesting colonade with a much
smaller open air market than the one before.
If you need your capelli cut, you can go to the Parruchieri (hairdresser).
This one accomodates both uomo (man) and donna (woman).
This is one of the main places people come to Firenze for ... piazza della signoria.
On the far left edge of the picture is a cast of The David.
When you first walk into this area, it is quite breathtaking because of the larger
than life sized sculptures. I'll give you some details on a different sculpture
or piece of art, una volta al mese (once a month).