Blessed by an Italian Nun: or how I just raved in a fortress circa 1534

Thursday afternoon
I believe that I was just blessed (maybe not fully blessed, but at least slightly) by a nun who works in a little store of all things Catholic, located right across from the Duomo. Just the fact that such a sweet woman would even talk with me is enough to make me feel fortunate! This particular nun reminded me of my grandmother. If you took my dad's mom, taught her Italian, rewound to when she was 70, put her in a habit and tossed her over to the Duomo, you would find this exact little nun. I might need to return to the shop and buy this little wooden rosary I was eyeballing just because I had the overwhelming sense that I needed to buy it.... When in Florence, as they say! 


(Although.... when in Florence..... one must definitely eat at a chinese restaurant where they serve a) lemon chicken with at least one entire REAL lemon sliced all over the fresh chicken and b) pizza by the slice. So good. Add a cheap Italian beer and you pretty much have the greatest lunch ever.)


When I got home after this little encounter, my little bros were talking up a storm and Silvia embarrassed them tremendously when she said, "Oh ragazzi, this is how you are when Sera isn't here but the second she comes in the door you get timidi, don't you?" At which point they both turned bright red and sat down at the counter and stared at their hands, elbowing each other and giggling. 


We had an amazing dinner of tender and flavorful turkey, incredible lentils cooked al dente with salt and olive oil, the best brussels sprouts I have ever had - yes an oxy moron but these were the BEST, served with Béchamel sauce, who woulda thunk!? - bread, tomatoes, and then some mandarins and biscotti. Perfection.


Oh, and did I mention that after doing the last (yes, the LAST - WOOHOO!) of my laundry, I returned home only to find a pair of men's black boxer briefs mixed in? Interesante.... I have been obsessively spraying everything in this room (including the doors, my closet, the clothes in my closet and my bed.... all the time) because I finally brought home EVERYTHING from the sede. I have all of my non-washable things spread on the floor to be sprayed and monitered for the next few days and then I am putting it all away. So far the coast appears clear! In boca al lupo! (In the mouth of the wolf = good luck!)


Friday afternoon
Yes, I did just go buy that rosary. And I love it. A lot. 

Prior to this purchase, Breana and I were craving hot chocolate (since it is freezing here!! Yes, I am aware that it has snowed in both Northampton, MA and Middlesex, VT but regardless, it went from being 85 degrees to being 40-50 degrees in a matter of days and it has been a tad bit shocking!). Anyway, we were craving hot chocolate so we returned to a place we had seen yesterday and we ordered hot chocolate - literally that's what it was - hot melted chocolate with a dollop of delicious whipped cream on it. It was amazing, but very intense and very dark. 


Later tonight we are meeting up with our Italian friends and heading over to this great event called "Festival della Creatività" at this amazing old fortezza (fortress) called Fortezza da Basso which is only about 15 minutes from my new house (http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortezza_da_Basso). It should be pretty amazing - there are art exhibits and food stands, and live music and DJs and dancing - everything you could ever need all inside one big, old castle. 

Friday late night
Recap of the evening: Dinner = delicious. As usual. We had really delicious rice with lentils leftover from last night and it was so comforting and tasty! Then we had two egg-somethings. It's hard to describe, but I guess they were like big flat omelets, one with sliced potato and one with incredible zucchini. Then we ate some apples and mandarins and after I helped clear the table (much to their surprise, I do this every evening no matter how many times they tell me not to!) and then we meandered into the living room to watch some ridiculous Italian television. I can't explain to you how bizzare Italian television is.... nudity, strange men in costumes (such as snowmen and really large red things with huge mouths), odd skits, and terribly depressing news. Needless to say, it is an experience. 

Oh, and did I mention.... I just raved in the castle. Well, the fortress really. It even had a moat (empty, but still!)! 


Saturday morning
Oops. I woke up just a tad bit late - 11:45am anyone? My family had the plumber come this morning and I just walked into the bathroom and the toilet is just not there anymore.... Anyway, the plumber was running all around the house this morning, up and down the stairs, hollering in Italian, and then the twins got up and were singing and frolicking around and it was all very nice and cute and entertaining and educational with all theItalian and such, but I wanted to sleep! So here I am, its 1:03pm and I need to finish this blog, shower, and then finish my homework, followed by a trip to the train station to buy a ticket to Perugia for tomorrow (chocolate festival!!) and then I am going out to dinner with Ali and her boyfriend and some other lovely ladies, and then who knows what!!


Such is life in Florence, Italy.


Baci e abbracci!!! 

...and the magic returns

My mother has always told me that everything happens for a reason. This is true.

That being said, it is often difficult to find that reason when things are just not going your way.

The other day I asked Giovanna how you say "the silver lining" in Italian, or at least if there was a different way of expressing that idea. She couldn't think of a thing other than "everything happens for a reason." I guess Italians just inherently know that there is a silver lining to all difficult times and therefore they don't need a phrase that expresses it.

This brings me to my point.

Despite the atrocity that is bedbugs, things have turned out rather peachy.

For example: Last night my host mama popped her head in the door and blew me a kiss goodnight followed by a "buon giorno" note on the counter when I went down for breakfast this morning. Then this afternoon we were talking about food, and first of all, they now all tease me about how much to put on my plate at dinner after living with a woman who perpetually overfed me. Secondly, when they mentioned that they enjoy this funny American thing called a pancake with syrup from trees on it and I offered to get them Vermont maple syrup and make them pancakes they agreed - this is something Luciana would not have agreed to given I wasn't even allowed to get my own glass from the kitchen, let alone actually USE the stove. God forbid. Finally, the fact that I have been given two little brothers it just about the best thing ever. They are still too shy to really talk TO me but they do talk around me and my host parents often have to remind them to slow down so I can understand what they are saying. The sweetest thing is that when it's time for dinner Lorenzo comes to my door, pops his head in, says, "Pronto!" ("Ready!") and runs back downstairs, meanwhile Filippo is laughing hysterically because he didn't have to come to get me and poor Lorenzo did. Lorenzo even knocked on my door earlier to bring me another blanket for my bed and when I said, "Buona notte" he just said, "Ciao!" and scampered away. Love it.

Additionally, I have decided that Luciana is no better a cook than any other Italian mama. It's the ingredients that give everything that basic, delicious, fresh taste and its hard to create anything that isn't absolutely yummy! In fact, tonight may have been my favorite meal so far - first ravioli with sage and butter (why don't Americans use sage more?), followed by proscuitto crudo, peccorino, homemade pepper jelly, Tuscan bread (did I mention that Tuscan bread is salt-less and therefore definitely requires a large hunk of cheese and pepper jelly!), mushrooms from Lucca, salad, amazing tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, and then a tasty biscotti and a mandarin. Now come on, what is there to not love about that meal? Niente. That's what.

Anyway. On a different note, I have the first bag of guaranteed bug-free clothing here in my room. Everything else remains at the sede. It has all been sprayed with BioKill (charming name) and bagged for the next 24 hours. Tomorrow I will dry what can be dried, freeze what can't be dried, and bring it home, all while respraying both my things and my room. Hopefully this is the last hurrah because I cannot imagine a more mortifying and upsetting thing than carrying the bugs into this generous and beautiful home.... Wish me luck!

Baci e abbracci a tutti!

P.S. Chocolate festival in Perugia this weekend? I think YES!

Starting Anew.

In order to fill you in properly, I must backtrack a few days. I will first share with you the fact that I was having an incredibly lovely weekend until Sunday around noon.

Friday night we went out for aperitivi with Alessio and his friends (our Italian friends/babysitters who we met through Giovanna). We got all dressed up (as it was Victoria’s birthday) and we enjoyed an evening of snacking and sipping some fancy drinks. We then wandered over to Twice, a somewhat touristy and overpriced yet still enjoyable discoteca. We danced our bums off all night and meandered home.

Saturday morning, we went to Pistoia, as I explained a few posts ago (you can see Giovanna and I chatting at the train station station. Saturday night we went out to an fantastic bar called Das Brumeister (or something along those lines) – by far the best bar I have been to so far (I think I shared this with you already?).

Anyway. Long story short… I woke up Sunday morning in a jolly good mood because I had slept a solid and restful 8 hours in my bed, in my new clean, bed-bug free room and I was about to head out to an artisanal market on the street where Giovanna lives.

Or not.

Because as I was standing up to hop in the shower, something scuttled out from under my blankets.

Undoubtedly a bedbug. Which I tried to catch, yet I failed and therefore it escaped. No worries though, because in the next 10 minutes I found 5 more through my sobs. I ran up to Ali’s room in tears, and called Giovanna who arrived within 30 minutes.

The next 10 hours are somewhat of a blur but what remains most clearly in my mind is that I was devastated, pissed, soggy with tears, and often found myself sitting on Giovanna’s lap being rocked, or walking around the streets of Florence holding her hand and my stuffed cat. Embarrassing. But so wonderfully 

comforting.

By 2pm, Giovanna had found me another family. A perfect family. That lives on a perfect street. In a perfect house. A family with 11-year-olf twin boys named Filippo and Lorenzo and the sweetest young mother and father Florence has ever seen. They live in a brand new apartment complex, complete with indoor courtyard area, an electric fireplace, a loft, a completely modern kitchen and every Disney movie you could ever want to watch in Italian.

After meeting this picture perfect family, Giovanna whisked me away to her house where she made me shower and then wear her white terrycloth bathrobe while we washed enough of my clothing to last a few days and steamed my backpack and purse. God forbid I bring bedbugs into this incredible new house.

After dining out with Giovanna, Julie and Ali, I “moved in” to my new family (mind you I only had a backpack with little clothing and my school supplies…). My new family picked me up at Giovanna’s house and I was privileged enough to pile into the backseat of the car between the twins. It was perfect.

Yesterday morning we started our official classes – I had Italian Literature, History of Costume and Fashion and Stylistics. Today I had Literature and Art History. So far everything seems pretty great, although the amount of reading we have in Italian is feeling somewhat overwhelming at this point.

Today as I was walking to class, I realized that I am lucky enough to pass the Botanical Gardens of the Museum of Natural History every day on my walk to and from the sede. Naturally, Alayna (whose birthday was today!) and I decided to check it out after class today. The woman at the door let us pay the reduced price because we were so bummed when we learned that our “Friends of the Uffizi” card didn’t work at the garden. Of course, in true Italian style, this particular botanical garden is NOTHING like those in the States – it was disorganized, the map was completely incorrect, and most of the greenhouses were either completely empty, closed for some reason or another, or extremely dirty and full of moss. Even so, there were trees and grass and in the cool air, it smelled like home (speaking of which – what is with the SNOW in Vermont already? And yes that is indeed a pomegranate tree!!!)

Yet another miraculous part of today was the fact that as we were sitting in Literature, we realized there was some kind of band playing in Piazza della Signoria right outside our window. No big deal. Just some incredible, very Italian-sounding band. Rocking out. In a piazza where the Medici family used to chill. Whatevs.

Less than 30 minutes later, I was sitting on the steps of a church in the center of Florence with Alayna, Breana, Christine and Anna, munching some paninis and drinking some (AMAZING) lemon soda, and, again no big deal, someone started singing very traditional religious church music inside the church. In the middle of day, not during any service, but just because. These are the things that make Florence so divine. Literally.

The only thing left to do before I can be completely settled in this new house is to acquire the rest of my belongings from Luciana’s, dry everything, steam what can’t be put in the dryer, including my luggage, and somehow get it all over it from the other side of town. No need to fret though because this afternoon Monica and Giovanna decided that they are going to do it themselves, and leave me at the sede to relax. Yes, that is indeed correct – they want to go bag up all of my belongings, get them dried, steam my luggage and repack it all and send it to me at my new house because they a) don’t want me to be under and more stress and chaos and b) they don’t want me to feel uncomfortable around Luciana (who continues to blame all of this on me personally… I think not!). They said that next week they would take Ali, Julie and I out to coffee with Luciana so that feelings can settle and we can all move on. I highly doubt there are two greater women in this world. Thank you….

On that note, I do believe it is time to go do some reason about the history of Italian fashion! Stay tuned for more updates!

Baci e abbracci a tutti!

P.S. Many pictures on Facebook!!!

seriously.....?

After all that.... just found 3 bedbugs. In my bed. In the new room. Where there weren't supposed to be any. 


What did I do to deserve this? 

that was just a little joke I was playing on you

so first of all. that last blog post was going to be a very nice, sentimental, mushy, happy, loving post about how great italians are and how we met lots of very sweet people yesterday and how luciana is taking such good care of us during all of this bug nonsense....

but then.

we went out. and before we went out, there was a bug. a little round, flat, brownish-red bug. crawling on my wall. i decided to ignore it and assume it was a fluke....

too bad that was NOT the case.

at 230 am when julie and i got home, we found 5 more. and then 6, 7, 8.....9, 10..... THIRTEEN MORE. little baby ones, big full ones, crawling on the floor, the bed, the light switches..... everywhere. per tutto.

long story short, i texted giovanna, she called back immediately, i was awake in the living room trying to nap until about 7am at which point luciana realized i wasn't in bed and she freaked out, we were up looking at bugs in my room for an hour, then i napped some more, talked with giovanna, then luciana, then ali and julie, then giovanna, then luciana, over and over.

verdict: we are moving out this afternoon/evening to either an apartment or a bed and breakfast. we will eat either in the apartment, out, or possibly with luciana every night (which i don't understand because i don't think anyone should even BE in this apartment at this point....) and while we are gone, they are going to re-exterminate. hopefully the ENTIRE house this time. not just the "spots" where the bedbugs "most likely" live. they need to do inside the walls, the sockets, the light switches... poor luciana having to pay all this money......

anyway, if after a week the coast is clear (which we will know only after staking out in my room with giovanna in the middle of the night on a bug-watch to ensure they are not lurking - giovanna's idea), we will move back in. if there is any sign of any bugs, we are being reassigned to new families and new houses....

talk about a nice welcoming into florence.

Come se dice "OVER IT"???

I have decided to be done with this whole bug thing.

Today we got new mattresses, Luciana cleaned our rooms to a pristine shine, and we are about to head out the door to the laundromat to wash EVERYTHING we own......

Upon returning home I am going to make my bed with these new sheets, put away all my freshly washed clothing, tidy and organize, and take a nap in my bug-free room. I am done done done with all of it! Then I can go back to blogging about interesting, moving, beautiful, Florentine things like how we visited Santa Croce yesterday and it was AMAZING, or how we found a really neat Tedesco (German) market, or how we went out last night and are going out again tonight - soon, I promise. No more bugs. Ever.

If I get bedbugs again.... I am coming home to Vermont and staying there forever.

Anywho. Off to the lavanderia! Wish us luck!!!

Unsure where to begin....

For a few days now, I have had many little bug bites - some standing alone and others in smaller, denser areas of bites. I thought nothing of this because everyone has been getting terrible mosquito bites since day one.

Bite count: A decent number, yet nothing alarming. Just a case of many Italian mosquitos perhaps?

Yesterday when I woke up, I was covered. I had little patches of bites on the back of my legs, my feet, my arms, and my back. I was slightly worried but decided to go get cortisone cream and some Benedryl. I figured, at worst, I was having an allergic reaction to laundry detergent or some of the fruit I had eaten. Off I went into town with Ali to go to the pharmacy and do some shopping.

Bite count: More. Definitely more. Getting worrisome - assumed allergic reaction!

About 1 minutes after leaving the house, Ali and I encountered and older woman walking very slowly, clutching onto the wall beside her, making pained and exasperated noises. As we came up to her, she let go of the wall and began falling backward. I caught her.

After Ali grabbed hold of the woman as well, we looked at each other rather panicked because the woman was speaking very quickly and quietly, in Italian, and even so, it didn't quite seem as though she was making perfect sense. She kept pointing to an address on an envelope she was holding and we didn't know if she was trying to get there, or if she wanted to get to the post office, or what, but then she asked us where the bus stop was. We tried to tell her it was too far, but it didn't matter either way since soon she was unable to stand even with Ali and I supporting her.

I called over the first man that walked by, since we couldn't let go of her to call an ambulance. He shook his head no and walked away. Unbelievable. Fortunately a woman soon biked by and stopped immediately when I asked her for help. I told her in Italian that we wanted to help this woman but we didn't speak Italian well enough to be able to. The woman called and ambulance, meanwhile two young men showed up and took the woman from Ali and I to lean her up against their Vespa while they held her. They asked us what happened and we explained in Italian as best we could. Fortunately, they also spoke English.

Interestingly enough, these two young men were seemingly and incredibly impressed with the fact that we were two American girls who a) spoke Italian well enough and b) saved a woman we didn't know on the streets of Florence. I don't know what imbecile wouldn't have done the same... but apparently they are out there somewhere. Finally, about 10 minutes later, an ambulance appeared. In Italy, no one moves over to let ambulances, fire trucks, police, etc. through. This ambulance was stuck behind a line of cars and actually had to wait through the stop light. It was appalling!

When asked what happen, this lovely older woman said she wasn't sure and she didn't understand because he legs just stopped working. She said she was always fine and this had never happened before, but her legs just wouldn't walk anymore. Between hearing this and having heard her try to speak earlier, our assumption is that she had a stroke. It was the most heartbreaking event I have ever experienced and I was shaking and tearing for a good long time afterward. The two younger men asked Ali and I first if we wanted to smoke, then if we wanted to go get coffee with them, then if we needed something cold to drink and finally, if perhaps they should call an ambulance for us as well. Maybe they should have, given that 6 hours later, we were still unable to think or speak clearly....

After that particular incident, we met up with the other ragazze from Smith and did some shopping, got a panini, had a beer and went to the pharmacy to buy some cream and Benedryl. The man at the pharmacy agreed and said that I was probably just allergic to something. Although the cream helped a little, I don't know how great of a help the Benedryl was.... and by this point, since they had been itchy for quite some time, the bites seemed to have spread.... I had them all over my arms and legs and back at this point.

Bite count: SPREADING!

Upon arriving home, I started panicking because I was tired, and almost a little woozy, and I started feeling that every little ache and pain must be related. I had myself all but convinced that I had adult chicken pox until....

I saw a bug crawling on the wall.

A tiny bug, mind you, but a bug nonetheless.

Naturally, I caught this bug in my waterglass and hopped on Google. Big mistake. Also very smart decision, but BIG MISTAKE. Within minutes, I was sobbing.

Bed bugs.

Che. Schifo.

How. Gross.