Florence + The Tourist Machine

 

So by now I have little time left. Have I seen all I needed to see and been all the places I wanted to go? I'd say I've made a good round of this wonderland. Bologna, Venice, Verona, Palermo, Lucca, Pisa, Rome, Ferrara have all been graced with my presence. One easily-accessible city that I hadn't yet visited has always held my curiosity. I've been waiting with patience but anticipation to make Brig proud by making my way to Florence.

Chillin' with the big, bad boss

So here’s the lowdown - Mirella, our darling volunteer leader of Bologna, brought the Intercultura gang over to Florence. After a tightly-squeezed car ride and two hour's time, we made it by mid-morning pumped up and ready to explore. With the help of her husband and Ela's Mamma Sandra, the three of them managed to cover every touristic inch of the city while even leaving us some free time to do our own wanderings. Nearly ten hours of real beauty and serious crowdedness left us all home entirely exhausted and completely satisfied that Saturday night. 

So what did we see? Nearly all of it. But I think somewhere along the way, we've lost our tourist touch in the last nine months. The kids and I have fun regardless of the city we're visiting or the history before our eyes. Whether this is a good or a bad thing, it's hard to say. I still have my appreciation for the things I see but I realize I spend less time capturing the moments and more time just enjoying them. I mean, let's be real - I haven't used my camera since October considering I bum off my German sweetheart but that's besides the point, right? Religiously stalking my cousin's blog for months, I got a sense of what to expect in Florence. There are some aspects of Italy, heck- some aspets of life, you can't really read about enough to gain a true comprehension of their force and beauty until it's right before your eyes. 

Florence is filled with tourists and color and the smell of fresh leather. I'm ranking it in my top five cities, ok? I realized, however, that I find myself having the most fun discovering the little quirks of new places and learning about its ridiculous happenings. The embarrassing mess American tourists have made in their days or the double-faced statue will catch my attention any day over the Wikipedia version of Italian history. 

Who would have expected that Karen and Watertown's Town-Wide Tag Sale would have taught me worldwide lessons? Entering the Florentine Market, I keep my cool in the crowded, narrow street among the shouts of sales and the perfume of well-made leather. My linguistic capabilities make me feel like I've got a one-up on every other non-Italian. So here's my trick. Once something pretty catches my eye, I strike up conversation with the sellers and pass some time considering the Florence vs. Bologna life, leather quality, whatever. Then arrives another American. They're just as interested as I am in the products but the prices seem to bother them. I hate to break it to you my darlings, but we are honestly that cheap. I make the life/language/nationality switch and dose out my advice in English, "This Italian quality leather won't be found in any other part of the world. Get out of those elite fashion stores, it's in the streets of this city that you'll find what you didn't even realize you wanted. Go for it; live large." By now the sellers are impressed by both my respect for business and also effort for the language. Oh check that out! That got me a nice bargain, walking out proudly with a nice new clutch, bracelet and wallet at $25 less than the asking price. Are you proud of me, Mom? 

The kids and I had the most fun spotting (and mocking) tourists from our home countries before we realized, "Hey, wait - we're tourists, too!" Regardless of an expiring Visa or grammatical errors, by now we've become the Italian versions of ourselves. I don't think that under any other circumstances teenagers from Thailand, Japan, Germany, Norway, Canada, Honduras, Venezuela, Russia and the States could have formed such a strong sense of community. Apart from Italy, what do we really have in common? Some emotions are worldwide but our cultures have taught us to respond each in our own way. I can see how they've changed and adjusted in the last nine months and I'm proud of them. This is my third family. 

PS. And I was like Ela, why are you so obsessed with me? ❤

All jokes aside, how have those buildings not fallen yet?

For a single Saturday, there was a lot of walking and a lot of talking, loads of listening and plenty of eating. It's hard to believe that AFS Bologna is something I've become so attached to but have known for such little time. I love our sweet days and little trips together. Now that we no longer have the Italian course 3pm-5pm every Monday and Wednesday drilled into our heads, we've been seeing each other a lot less. The best part is that it never matters because once we get back together it's like the weeks in which we've been apart never even passed.

I left Florence with a determination no other city has blessed me with, which is the determination to come back. I'm so curious and never completely tired of my dreamland. So yeah, I miss my G's Burgers and every once in a while I'd kill for a good Dunkin' Donuts. I want to hug my family and sing in cars with my friends and watch my daycare babies grow up. But I'm still doing fine. Sike, I'm still doing great. Italy is about 800 miles long so there's no way I can check these selective cities off my list and call it quits. This country hasn't seen the last of me and surely neither has Florence.

"We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known."