Reflections on my First Week in Italy

My apologies for not providing posts in a timelier manner, but the challenges of moving here have put me a bit behind.  Our first week, Dec 1-7 proved exciting, thrilling, and everything we hoped and knew it would be.  Now that we are settling in it’s a good time to stops and catch my breath, and take a look back on a few observations: 

·         Florence would still be a fun, vibrant city even if it didn’t have its great museums and beautiful churches, but its museums and churches are part of its soul.

·         If you cannot find a great place to eat in Florence, you are blind.  And your nose has stopped working too.

·         Italians eat reasonable portions of fresh, healthy, wholesome food every day and stay trim.  Unfortunately many of them smoke like chimneys which means they really don’t live any longer than anyone else.

·         Buying an Italian phone, or putting an Italian SIMM card in your existing phone (I did both) is far more difficult than your friends or the online blogs lead you to believe.  It took three days and three hikes to the WIND phone store to get both phones working properly – but once set up they are an order of magnitude cheaper than trying to run a discounted U.S. ATT roaming plan for a long term stay in Italy.

·         Italy is the world champion of bureaucracy.  We thought applying for an Italian VISA while still in the US was difficult, but applying for the Permesso di Soggiorno (Permission to Stay) and Codice Fiscale (Italian Social Security numbers) after arriving here (they are needed when staying more than 3 months) is so complicated we had to hire an agent to help us with it.

·         Where we are living in Florence is perfect for us.  Our apartment does not get the noise of traffic and sirens you would normally expect in other parts of the city, yet we are a 1 minute walk to the Arno River, and a 5 minute walk to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge or Uffizi Museum.  Our area is nice and has its own vibe, but we can easily walk 15 minutes to numerous other sections of the city, each with its own piazzias, markets, shops, and sights.  But it all hangs together in a central theme - Florence is a little like NYC in that the Florentines (Italian city residents) have a strong identity with their city, despite the numerous foreigners living here.  Like me.

·         I am very frustrated with myself that I didn’t have the time to learn much Italian before arriving.  Now that we are starting to get beyond all the things necessary to settle in, this will become a priority.

·         Despite my lack of Italian, I have quickly gotten pretty adept at savvy grocery shopping – food and money speak a universal language.

·         So far I found two sports bars that televise NFL Football – the House of Sizzle and the Lion’s Fountain Irish Pub.  7:00pm local broadcast of 1:00EST games and 10:30pm broadcast of 4:30EST games.  Monday Night Football? Ain’t happening.

·         My favorite wine of the week – A Castiglioni Chianti from the Frescobaldi family, bearing the official DOCG stamped label certifying that all grapes in the bottle came from the Chianti district of Tuscany.  At 9.90€ per bottle it is smooth and solid, and a definite cut above the 5.00€ Chianti’s.  And no, you can’t get it in the US.