La Mia Vita in Italia: Il Mio Terzo Settimana in Italia

Il Ponte Vecchio

My third week in Italy has been yet another very enjoyable week. I am really starting to feel at home in the Villa. Everyone in the program is so friendly and fun to talk to. It’s just a really great, positive environment to be living in. The highlights of my week include teaching at an elementary school, shopping, going out dancing, and of course more delicious food. I’ll start by explaining about my first teaching experience. For the rest of the semester I will be teaching English in a third grade class once a week with my friend Melissa. We had our first day last Monday, and it was great! The teacher was very friendly, and the kids’ faces lit up when we walked in. Melissa and I introduced ourselves, and the teacher helped to translate some words for the class. Then the class read some introductions they had prepared for us. They told us their name, how many siblings they had, they’re lucky number, favorite color, and favorite animal. It was adorable! We ended the class by playing a game of Simon Says, which they loved. I teach again tomorrow so I’ll have to brainstorm some more fun grade school games to play. I thinking some hangman and heads up 7up would be perfect. Overall, it was a really good first day. They kids are so excited to get to know us, and I can’t wait to see them every week.

My classes at the villa are going well too. Italian is the most work, but that’s probably good since I am in Italy. Reading Nietzsche is still pretty strange, but interesting for sure. I really love the film class, even though so far we’ve only been watching very depressing films. They are from a period called Neorealism, which highlighted depressing themes from right after World War II. Directors wanted to make the films as real as possible, so they all have tragic endings. Luckily this next week we are moving on to a new period. We will be learning all about Fellini, which I’m really excited about. I still love my Florentine Renaissance Art class too. The site visits are always great. We visited three different churches around Florence this week. They were all stunning! It’s just such a great way to get into the city for the afternoon, and to be able to see firsthand some of the best art Florence has to offer. I think it would be really difficult to see all that art on my own, so I’m very happy I decided to take that class.

This weekend I took time off of traveling and stayed at the Villa to explore Florence more. On Friday I went into the city with two girls, Andrea and Heather, to do some shopping. The end of the month of January marks the end of all the big sales in Italy, so we picked a good weekend to shop. It was a pleasant sunny day to be walking around Florence. We got some pasta and espresso for lunch at a random little restaurant. And I bought my first pair of real Italian leather boots! Definitely was a successful shopping day. Friday night at the Villa was strange because so many people were gone traveling. But it was nice to have a smaller group at dinner. After dinner, most people decided to go into Florence. I went to my first Italian dance club called Twice. It was a lot of fun, and there weren’t too many Americans there. (A lot of other study abroad programs just started in Florence, so the place is filled with Americans now). The next day I went with Andrea to Sesto Fiorentino's Saturday Market. We just browsed around, and then hung out at the villa for the afternoon. That night I went for dinner and an adorable Italian restaurant called Osteria in the Piazza Santo Spirito with a group of 8 people. I loved the décor of the restaurant. It was very small, with a nice deep red color on the walls. And yes, it was amazing food once again! I got spaghetti with tomatoes, garlic, and basil and a glass of white wine. It was one of my favorite dinners outside of the villa so far. We stopped to hang out for a little at the Ponte Vecchio after dinner, which looked stunning at night! It really hit me that I was living in Italy while staring at all the beautiful lights over the water. It was incredible.

I should also mention how incredible the villa food has been this past week. This is mainly because we had numerous desserts, which were all phenomenal. We had homemade tiramisu, carrot cake, and chocolate cake with pear. The tiramisu was my favorite. It was so rich and creamy! I hope we have it again soon. And we also had pesto pasta twice this past week, which is by far my favorite kind of pasta. I am really starting to miss cooking though (pesto pasta being of my favorite meals to make). It will definitely have to be one of the first things I do once I get back home. But we might get to get a cooking class in the Villa at some point this semester, which would be amazing.

This next weekend I will be leaving Florence and heading to Brussels, Belgium. I am super pumped for my first trip out of Italy. And the weekend after that the whole program goes on a trip to Rome! So I have a couple of fun weekend to look forward to.

I miss everyone at home very much, and hope you’re all doing well!

Molti Baci!

-Laura