Florentine Adventure, Take 2

As many of you may know, I made the oh-so-difficult decision to return to Florence after my 3-month adventure here last fall. OK, maybe it wasn't that hard but it wasn't undertaken lightly as it meant leaving the family and friends I was so happy to see upon my return in December. (Oh, it also meant that I would postpone my master's degree program one more semester but that wasn't as hard...)

I suppose I should rename this blog since fall is now a distant memory, but it's probably more trouble than it's worth. It has been a week since I got here and the differences between this and the early days of my last adventure are like... well... fall and spring.

Obviously having spent just three months here by no means makes me an expert on all things Florentine or Italian. But it does provide a level of comfort and familiarity that feels great. I wish I could say that my Italian had improved by leaps and bounds over these last few months but unfortunately that's not the case. I can, however, throw out a few more words that can be helpful in some situations so that's major progress compared to my first week here in September.

Most notably, I have changed location. During my last adventure I was living on the "other" side of the Arno River (Oltrarno) which I described in one of my posts. I am now officially a city resident. My new apartment is conveniently located just steps from the main shopping area of the city, so my neighbors have names like Ferragamo, Prada, Gucci, Vuitton, Cartier. Maybe you've heard of them? You know, the places on your weekly shopping rounds.

I am just 2 blocks from the river but this time on the north, city center side. The front door of the building is on Via Del Sole (street of the sun) and my windows overlook Via Delle Belle Donne (street of the beautiful women). That's a pretty great location, yes?

While I've lived in close proximity to both Boston and Seattle, I would not consider myself a true city dweller. I tend to hover right in the areas between the real city and the true burbs. So far I'm really enjoying being so close to everything but the lack of walking will likely have an impact on the scale. Hopefully the fact that I'm on the fourth floor of a walk-up will help offset things just a bit.

The one tiny drawback, though, is the level of noise that results from living in town. During the day this is one thing but at night it becomes completely another. I am a light sleeper, something that I attribute to bat-like hearing. I can be roused out of a dead sleep by someone blowing their nose two houses away.

But that's part of what this second adventure is about, continuing to break out of the comfort zone and learn new things, so here I dwell.

During the day, the noise is what you might expect: scooters racing by, large tour groups chattering noisily as they shuffle en masse down the street below, or the high-pitched laughter of teenagers. Then there are the weekend nights when you get the 3am wake-up call of some drunk guy singing his way home from the clubs. Even my noise machine and earplugs aren't drowning that out.

Occasionally, the city noise is punctuated by something unique, the stuff you don't expect, like the accordion player who was strolling around last Thursday and the marching band that went by last Friday evening. No parade, just a marching band, dressed in regular clothes. Maybe this happens in every city? I wouldn't know.

I'm trying to learn how to let it all fade into the background and become the underlying soundtrack to this part of my Italian living experience. My hope is that even the drunken crooners will soon fall silently onto my own sleeping ears. And if that doesn't happen, you know what they say: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

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