Wednesday January 28th

We had a quick layover in Frankfurt and then headed down to Florence on a small plane. The plane was packed with study abroad students…the girls I sat next to were interior design students from Colorado State so I’m sure we’ll be bumping into each other a lot. At the airport in Florence we grabbed our gigantic bags (that became quite obnoxious on the cobblestone streets) and took a taxi to our school, Lorenzo de Medici (LDM). Lanes don’t really exist in Italy, driving is more of a free-for-all so I don’t intend on attempting driving anytime soon…if at all.

At the school, we checked in with our housing coordinator and picked up our apartment keys. We then took another taxi to our new home….Via de Macci 20! We definitely lucked out on the apartment after talking with some other students. We came expecting freezing room temperatures, a kitchen in the form of a hot plate, and tight living quarters. Instead we have large rooms, lots of storage, warm temps, kitchen with stove, good size bathroom, and nice water pressure. The landlord has her colorful personal paintings hung in every room and they give the apartment a fun character. My three other roommates are all K-state students as well: Erika, Melanie, and Rachael. I didn’t know them beforehand but I think they’re going to be great friends and travel partners.

We wandered around the streets our first night looking for something to eat. We weren’t really sure what we were looking for but ended up at a standard pizzeria near the Duomo…it was obviously a touristy spot but we were hungry enough not to care. It probably wasn’t authentic Italian fare… but it was a lot of food for cheap so that was just fine. We spent the rest of the night unpacking our bags and went to bed early when the jet lag set in.