Four days in Italia and I’ve already done so much!
I traveled with another student on the program, Sarah. The adventure truly started when the taxi driver dropped us off at the gate of our school. It was locked. There we were, jet lagged, dragging fifty-pound suitcases, unsure of what to do. "Buongiorno?" We called, but no one answered. While Sarah watched our bags, I walked up the gray, dusty steps to what appeared to be deserted apartments. It took us fifteen minutes to figure out that there was a buzzer, which we’d both somehow missed seeing.
"Ciao! Piacere!" The directors of the program greeted us, unlocking the gate. I soon realized that they take the immersion thing seriously; they speak to us only in Italian!
Two Universita di Firenze students, Cecilia and Georgo, showed us around Firenze. They took us to lunch at a small trattoria, called Trattoria da Marco. It was so tiny that there was no place to walk. Every table had its own door; you pull open the door, and slide into the booth. Waiters walk through one narrow aisle, which is blocked off to customers. We all ordered orecchiette, a kind of homemade pasta. In truth, it was too rich for me! There was so much olive oil I felt sick, and had to force myself to eat half…my stomach will surely be expanding over the next four months!
At around 6:00 the three new students (there are sixteen other students on the program who have been in Firenze since the Fall) and myself took a van to Lucca, which a Professor on the program described to as “the Martha’s Vineyard of Italy,” the perfect analogy. Lucca, which I visited once before, is jewel, a bellismo little city an hour drive from Firenze. We stayed in a charming, cozy hotel, Albergo San Martino.
The hotel room I stayed in.
A few highlights of orientation:
A tour of Lucca led by Fabrizio Ricciardelli (the program’s professor of History and Anthopology). Yes, I now know someone named Fabrizio. (How cool is that?!) My favorite part of the tour was the Torre Guinigi. After a frightening climb up a narrow stairway, we were rewarded with a jaw-dropping view of Lucca and the meandering hills of Tuscany. We also visited the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi, a Museum-Residence, and an example of a Luccan Merchant’s mansion. We were the only ones there, which is what made it so special. Artwork and ornate Baroque decorations covered room after room. The mansion was time-warp still. Standing in the empty ballroom it was easy to imagine the sound of violins, the swish of dresses moving across the dance floor.
Taken from the top of Torre Guinigi
A statue in the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi
Dinner too was memorable. We all ordered enormous personal pizzas (in America they would not have been personal pizzas, but “medium”) at a restaurant called Antica Drogheria. Melanzana (eggplant) for me! One of the program directors brought their adorable five year old daughter, Vittoria (Veet-or-eey-uh). Turns out five year olds are great to practice a language with, since they don’t have a large vocabulary! (Although Vittoria knows much more Italian than me!)
Antica Drogheria has a pizza with lard and cinnamon....non per me...
La Pizza Melanzana
Il Tiramisu
Il ristorante, Antica Drogheria
Lunch on Sunday was also amazing. At “Trattoria da Leo” I ordered Minestra di Farro Lucchese, a local specialty made from spelt (a kind of wheat) and red beans. This soup was hearty, satisfying, and tasted as if all the ingredients had been picked from the earth that morning. For dessert, la torta cioccolato – it was made from a rich, dark chocolate, but the crust was lacking – or perhaps it’s just that I’m not used to what was basically a chocolate cake with crust!
After lunch we went back to Firenze, where our host families picked us up. But I can’t give everything away today…to be continued!
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