Grah-zee-AY

May 24, 2015

Last night I dreamt in Italian but I couldn’t understand everything. Or respond. Erin said that’s how it starts – thinking in Italian, or any foreign language.  I’m trying to work on words & pronunciation.  Turns out, I’ve been mispronouncing “Grazie!” my entire life.  My Florentine trained sister continues to correct even my simple things. “Grat-zee” becomes “Grah-zee-ay.”  Oooff.

This morning we woke to have breakfast at Gianni’s.  He made us bacon and eggs.  They were delicious! Normally I prefer crispy bacon, charred just before the point of becoming bacon bits.  I consider the breakfast meat bacon, if only for the fact that it was warm & once oinked.  For those in  the US, this was probably closer to warmed prosciutto. And it was fabulous! I loved observing Gianni in the kitchen; his techniques were to be admired. For example – our eggs were not cracked on the side of a pan.  No, no.  They were cracked with a knife.  I liked this technique.

After breakfast, we got ready and sat on the balcony.  It was a beautiful morning in Turin.  The sun was out.  It wasn’t too hot or too cold.  After enjoy the last bit of the view from Gianni and Antonella’s balcony, we loaded up the car and Antonella drove all of us to the train station.

Gianni escorted us to the train.  We had a little bit of a wait, as the train was delayed a bit.  Once seated, I sat across from Erin, facing her on our trip to Firenze.  Her seat was by the door.  A man sat next to me.  The train had no problem picking up speed and making up for the lost time.  Thank you 190 mph train!

Upon arrival at the Firenze train station, we found a man wearing a suit, and holding a little piece of paper, “Montemurro.”  Erin waved at the man & he calmly folded his piece of paper.  I was just thankful that our train wasn’t delayed any later.  If so, we would’ve had to call for a separate service to pick us up and escort us to our apartment.  Our drive from the train station was short.  By Chicago standards, we could’ve walked if necessary, but Erin reminded me our luggage may not have made the walk given the cobblestone.  I couldn’t get over the Mercedes van we rode in to our hotel.  The interior of the van was beautiful and I could’ve eaten off of the floor or leather seats.

The streets were PACKED with people, seemingly oblivious to the large van trying to pass through the narrow streets. A few minutes later we arrived at Residence Hilda where we rented an apartment for the week.

I’m writing this from our 5th (top) floor apartment.  Or maybe it’s the 4th.  I can’t remember. In Italy, they start counting at “0” not “1.”

Once we settled in, letting the disbelief sink in that we were going to stay in this fun little apartment for the week, we took our first full showers (rinsing off at Gianni’s was different) in Italy, then went out to explore Firenze.  We had to welcome Erin back to her city!

At the end of our block is the Duomo.  It is so close it is surreal.  Truly.  I keep waiting to run into the backdrop of a movie set, but no – it’s the real thing, literally a stone’s throw from me.

We walked to see the Ponte Vecchio, the bridge Erin crossed every day on her walk to class, and then a small street festival where I ordered “3 Arancini” (BY MYSELF!).

Erin got us each an Italian Hamburger for 3.90 Euro.  We then got Gelato at Gelateria Santa Trinita and walked toward the bridge and let the Ponte Vecchio come into full view.  This was a magical dessert-ing experience.  We were in Firenze and I could tell in the first hours that these streets carried a different energy.

After we finished our gelato, we walked to the grocery store, where we bought some fruit & yogurt for morning, as well as wine and cheese for the evenings.  There were SO MANY Americans out!  OH TOO MANY SELFIE STICKS! I swear, with all the selfie sticks I saw today, that is motivation in itself to learn Italian. And maybe use a few choice words. ;-)

Anyways, its been a full day and I’m off to bed.  Tomorrow should be another adventure. And there will be lots of walking!