Sessantasette
Today is officially my 67th day in Italy. That is 3 days longer than I have ever been away from home in my life.
I’m starting to freak out just a little.
Life here has been good. Cold, but good. Apparently winter comes early here, and when people back home say, “Oh, Florence weather is practically like Tennessee weather,” they use the word “practically” in the sense of “much more harsh than”. Therefore, I was duped into bringing only Tennessee-approved jackets and coats which fall short of the jacket standards here. I mean, unless you don’t mind not being able to feel your body moving. Then it’s all okay.
Even the cold would be bearable if the Italians would just HEAT THEIR BUILDINGS!!! Really? Would it hurt to turn the thermostat up to “semi-frostbite”? Apparently it would. Actually it’s illegal for Italians to turn on the heat before a set date in November. Even when that date comes they are only allowed to turn it on during certain times of the day and for a limited time. These hours happen to be 6-7 am, and 6-7 pm. The rest of the time you just get to freeze your face off. Yay for Socialist countries.
I have done things OTHER than complain about the cold. Yes indeed. In addition to the cold, I’ve taken to complaining about the continual rain, the lack of variety in the food, the early sunset, and the insane number of stairs it takes to get to the third floor. I think that this means I’m feeling very at home. But seriously! EVERY time we take a school trip to some cool city I’m super excited about seeing, it rains. Which means it’s cold (er than normal.) Every meal, I think we have the exact same pasta ew-ness. Except with different left-overs thrown in the sauce. We only get good food when it’s someone’s birthday, or when there are guests. And the sun? It sets so insanely early. Literally 4:30 in the afternoon and it’s dark. What kind of a day is that? And just you try to justify using 5 flights of stairs to get to the third floor. Italy is a crazy place.
I do love it though. As much as I complain, the more I see of it, the more I am amazed by it. It’s so cool to see things that have thousands of years of history. Buildings and doors and streets that are older than my country! I just had to do a paper on Bologna and I discovered that the Studio, now called the University of Bologna, is the oldest school in the world. It was founded in 1088 and has been an operating university for over 920 years, boasting students such as Petrarca and Dante. NINE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS!!! DANTE!!! SO exciting. Now, don’t get me wrong, America’s got things going on, and I can’t wait till I get back, but in the mean time, it’s wonderful to just be able to soak up so much of a different culture. To see things older and different then I’d ever imagined; to see a different way of life and know that there are other possibilities out there. I love it.
And I’ve gotten to see a lot. I’ve been to Napoli, Sorrento, Pozzouli, Capri, Poppi, Vinci, San Giminiano, and Volterra. Soon I get to go to Bologna and Ravenna, and I can’t wait. I just hope it doesn’t rain.
…again.
