Week 14: 11/25 - 12/1

This Year, I’m Thankful for Pizza

Finally reunited!

This past week was nice and calm!

I spent my Monday morning finishing my book with a latte at Ditta Artigianale — it was so nice! Two little mothers sat down next to me with their newborn babies, so I tried to keep my eyes averted. Italian people in general are quite private with strangers (especially American strangers) and their mothers are on protective overdrive. But, these mothers were so nice! They proudly held up their babies for me and cooed as they waved and broke out into gummy smiles. The babies’ names were Cesare and Nicoletta, and they were such sweet little things! It’s so interesting to me to see how motherhood is just a touch different here.

Such a nice hot latte at Ditta!

Once I had finished my book, I headed across the river to Ceramics class. We had to finish our final projects today, which is a set of three coordinating characters of our own design. One of my friends made a family of snails. I’ll be keeping this one to myself until I finish them! After work time, we gathered up and walked over to a tabernacle by the Central Market — one by a famous ceramicist named Della Robbia. It was beautiful! We learned about how glazed terracotta became a popular type of art for outdoor pieces like this one because of how durable it was.

Now that I’m anticipating my mother’s arrival this weekend, I’ve started to become more aware of how little time I have left. As of today, Monday, I have just 18 days — less than three weeks. In this second half of the semester, I’ve really started to miss home — my family, my daily rhythms, and my neighborhoods — but seeing the days drop below twenty has reminded me that I’ve gotten used to this life, and I’ll miss it here too. Things like walking across the bridge in the early morning to class and watching rowers coast over the water, looking over to the Ponte Vecchio, or shoving past tourists around the Duomo… I have to remember not to take it for granted. I’ll even miss just trudging down these cobblestone streets and listening to the chatter of Italian coming from open windows or aperitif hour around me.

Keeping in mind that I only have a short time left to explore my neighborhood, I decided to head over to Wild Bun on Tuesday and enjoy it as much as I could. The trees are really starting to turn now, all breaking out into oranges and reds, so I really enjoyed my walk over there. I grabbed a pastry and a coffee, and then I spent some time journaling at a table.

Eventually, I headed across the river for my history class with Virginia. She has a friend visiting with us this week, SE, and Virginia got special permission from the professor for her to join us in class! SE is a history major at Charleston, so she was excited to get a peek into our curriculum. The bulk of our time today was spent doing a mock-debate where we broke into teams and represented Italian cities vying for control of the country. We were Venice, Milan, Rome, and Florence — but our group was Rome. The class got way more invested than I expected; one of the boys was a real tool about making the debate personal. Other than his petty little comments, we had a lot of fun getting into character and arguing over Italy.

I spent most of my Tuesday evening trying to get work out of the way for when Mom and Lanie come on Sunday, so I worked on my history essay and started gathering sources for my HR presentation. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was satisfying to get done.

I woke up early on Wednesday for HRM, and as I passed by the Duomo, I noticed that they were finally putting the Christmas tree up in the piazza! It was so cheerful and sweet.

A cheerful little Christmas tree!

After class, I headed over to Piazza Santa Croce to meet up for my last SAI activity that I had signed up for — a bookmaking class at a shop across the river. There were 7 other girls that had signed up, and two new staff members that were being trained for the upcoming spring semester. We exchanged names and chatted as we trekked across the river.

The bookshop was a small spot by the Ponte Vecchio, run by a charmingly awkward woman wearing a beanie and a jacket covered in paper glue. Her studio was filled with hand-bound books, made with paper or leather, and stitched together in various patterns. She explained that she was a Canadian who had studied in Florence too, but she ultimately made the city her home and bought the shop after working under the original owner for years.

Once the class was underway, we all got started by tearing pieces of handmade Amalfi paper to use as the pages of our book. Everything was moving along as scheduled, until one of the girls in my class suddenly blacked out and stumbled against her work station. The room erupted into a tizzy — the brand-new SAI leaders were overwhelmed with their first student-related emergency, the bookshop owner was guiding the girl into a chair, and the rest of us stood awkwardly and tried to figure out how to help. We offered her spare snacks and a water bottle as the SAI leaders chattered anxiously on the phone with the program. After ten minutes, the girl hadn’t really improved much, so the leaders called an ambulance and asked us to sit while we waited for them to arrive. It was remarkable to me — an ambulance just for a girl feeling faint! But in Italy, ambulances are free, so they don’t hesitate to call them. After a few minutes, several cheerful Italian EMTs dressed in neon orange jumpsuits filed into the store and guided the girl and our leaders out. I honestly have no idea what ended up happening to her, but I’m sure she got some fluids and is doing fine now.

We were down three people now, and the bookshop owner stared at us quizzically. She confirmed that we still wanted to continue with the class (none of us objected!) and then she gathered up the discarded materials from their three work stations. After a moment of consideration, she grabbed their three book covers and offered them up to us. “Anyone prefer one of these instead?” She asked. “They won’t be using them.” It seemed a little bit in poor taste, but a few girls grabbed them and traded with their own.

The rest of the class took a long time: almost 3 hours. We had to measure and punch holes into the spine of our cover, and then create signatures — groupings of pages — to arrange inside the book. Then, step by step, we stitched the signatures into the cover and secured the book together.

Thursday — Happy Thanksgiving!

Italy doesn’t care about this holiday in the slightest. We had class as scheduled, and no one said a word about it anywhere. It was a little sad to think about my family celebrating without me, but my roommates and I tried to make the most of it. I made it through class, and then I headed back home and plugged away at my final papers again. I had a pretty quiet rest of the day, where I FaceTimed my family around 6pm and then had a “first” dinner right after. Then, a couple hours later I headed across the river and met Virginia, Lilly, SE, and some of Virginia’s other friends at Buca Mario for a Thanksgiving dinner!

The waiter was very funny; he said, “I offer you my condolences that you have to live in this city during your country’s holiday.” We laughed, and then we spent the evening enjoying an Italian dinner instead of turkey and stuffing.

Friday was my last day to get things done before Mom and Lanie arrived. I did a load of laundry, finished two of my papers, and packed up a suitcase to use for the next week at their hotel.

Saturday — marmalade day! Mom and Lanie wouldn’t be landing until 2pm, but I woke up early and worked on some more assignments before running over to Wild Buns for breakfast. After grabbing a croissant and a latte for myself, I bought a couple of pastries to bring to their hotel. Once it reached 1pm, I bundled up and headed out for the 30 minute walk over to their hotel. After a little bit, they finally arrived. It was so nice to see Mom!! I hadn’t seen her in almost two months, and the distance made it even more lonely, so it was really nice to be reunited after so long.

We spent the afternoon fulfilling all of their Florence dreams — seeing the Duomo, the Palazzo Vecchio, and Santa Croce — and then we walked around and shopped a bit before relaxing at the hotel. The travel was starting to hit them in the early evening, so we had a relaxed night at a nearby restaurant called La Buchetta. Their first day in Italy was a success!

On Sunday, we had a relaxed start, and then we headed down to the lobby for a hotel breakfast. It was really nice! There were delicious cappuccinos, cornettos, and even a few American classics like bacon or scrambled eggs. Once we were full, I took Mom and Lanie along the river and introduced them to one of my favorite pharmacies. There are all kinds of great brands in there like Caudalie, La Roche Posay, Nuxe, and Marvis, so they enjoyed checking everything out and buying a couple of things.

I wanted to show them what my side of the river is like, so we headed to the Ponte Vecchio to cross. We walked slow so that Mom and Lanie could take everything in, and it helped me to appreciate where I’ve been living yet again. When you watch someone ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over your morning commute, it makes it feel a lot more special!

Lanie and Mom and I got separated close to the end of the bridge, and when I whipped around to find Lanie, I spotted a poster guy right next to her. There are jerks that hang around big tourist sites like this with prints, and then they offer them for crazy prices. Apparently, one of them had found Lanie. When I ran over to shoo him away, he had already dropped down to 25 euros, which was still a ridiculous price for a street print. I don’t know much Italian, but I knew enough to tell him that his price was too expensive and we didn’t want one. I tried to pull Lanie away, but she was still interested in the print. He dropped down to 15 — still too much. I told him so, and then I grabbed Lanie by the arm so we could hurry away. He could tell he was losing us, so he thrust the poster in my hand and asked me how much I wanted to pay. I smiled and told him that I would pay 5 euros, which made him laugh. I figured he wouldn’t go that low, so I tried to give the poster back to him, but he shoved his hands into his pockets. I threatened to drop it on the ground, and he finally accepted the offer. 5 euro deal! The whole scenario was ridiculous, but I was proud of getting him down that far. He was irritated (and he called me a name) but he took our money. Bye bye!

After our bartering experience, we headed to Piazza Santa Spirito to check out the Sunday market. It was just fine today, but mostly clothes, so we walked through pretty quickly and then settled down at Caffe Ricchi for lunch. We got some great pasta, and we enjoyed a nice afternoon outside people-watching and soaking in the “neighborhood-y” side of the city. After lunch, I took them to Sbrino to introduce them to my favorite gelato, and then we walked over to the Pitti Palace to try and cash in on the free museum day.

We waited in line for about 15 minutes, and then we made it inside to the Boboli Garden. The trek up to the top of the garden was frustrating, but the view was so worth it. Eventually, we headed inside and toured the fashion exhibit upstairs. The Pitti Palace originally hosted a fashion show in one of their ballrooms, which is where a lot of famous Italian brands were displayed and gained notoriety.

The view from the Boboli gardens!

For dinner, we headed to a restaurant called La Menagere. I’ve always passed it on my walks home from class and it looked so elegant to me, but it was also recommended to me as a “parent-approved” restaurant by one of my friends. It was amazing! The restaurant was so intentionally designed — there were gorgeous blue floral china plates, precious tiny little butter knives, and beautiful glassware etched with flowers and vines. We had delicious bread, even better butter, and some really good pasta for our entree. We had a really nice evening eating slowly, chatting, and enjoying the ambiance of the space. After dinner, we explored the restaurant’s shop and Mom picked out a few of their butter knives to take home.

What a nice week! I tried to get as much work done as I could while soaking up the beginning of the end, and then I had a fantastic weekend seeing the city with fresh eyes with Mom and Lanie! They’ll be here until Sunday, so we’re spending the week exploring some highlights, taking a few day trips, and then finally trekking down to Rome to catch the big tourist attractions.

Bye for now!!

Charlotte