Now that we are seasoned veterans of Firenze.....of one week....here are some of our observations about our life.... The Duomo (the 4th largest church in Europe) is visible from almost anywhere and provides easy orientation for finding our way around. The other clues that Randy uses are the hills of Fiesole to the north and the shadows from the sun with the time of day so he knows which compass direction we are heading. With these observations, Randy, is now affectionately known as Sandy's personal GPS. He has a Firenze library card from the Della Oblate across the street. So we can add another name to him, the "Walking Wikipedia". He had to get the library card in order to access the internet on his laptop. They have wireless and the plug in ethernet is not working on his laptop in our apartment. (I'm sure Jon could figure it out)
In a regular Italian drip style coffee maker - they don't use filters and you can't buy them... so we make them out of napkins. Either that or our cups are full of fine grounds and our coffee is thick. Randy did buy an authentic espresso maker (like a mini stove top percolator) and is making strong italian espresso for erasing the cobwebs in the morning.
Our bathroom has heated towel bars, a bidet and curved french doors on the shower. It also has a door to a patio that can open from the side or the top for venting.
Electricity is expensive here yet they still have to have adapters for their own Italian appliances because they come with different sizes of plugs.
Living fully, we are inundated with smells both good and bad; the water has an odourous bleach yet sulphuric stench; leather, espresso, cigarette smoke, sewer, car fumes, fresh pasticcerias , baked bread, waffles and pizza.
Sandy continues to make fine tuscan cuisine from ingredients bought at the market - beef stew, spaghetti, focaccia sandwiches all enjoyed with aqua frizzante (sparkling water) and vino rosso.
Some are wondering why we chose Italy and why Florence? Here are some reasons as to why Italy: after half a dozen trips to Europe, Italy is our favourite country. We love the food, climate, culture, coffee, architecture, art, landscape, gelato and people. Besides that, it was Hannah's first choice. Why Firenze? It is a small city. Bigger than Kelowna, but much smaller than Vancouver. You can walk everywhere easily. It has a good airport and train station for italian excursions and is centrally located between Rome, Milan and Venice. Plus it is the home of renaissance art and architecture (Dante, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Machiavelli, Brunelleschi, all lived here). And it is in the centre of Tuscany with picturesque rolling hills, cypress trees, vineyards, olive groves - an idyllic landscape.
Although it has only been one week, we are quite settled in to our new short term home 100 meters from the Duomo on via dell' Oriuolo.