First and foremost, and beyond any shadow of a doubt,
Florence was for us and continues to be an outstanding place for newbies to
spend their first winter in Italy. The
city thrives on a strong cosmopolitan vibe, both from the thousands of international
college students and the many ex-Pats from all over the world. This provides opportunities to make friends
with English speaking people from many walks of life. Not surprisingly though, this vibe is often overshadowed
by the city’s stupendous offerings of art, architecture, culture, and history that
exist on an unimaginable scale – the entire Historic Center of the city is an
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Shopping options are endless, from the most modest
clothing offerings in the piazza bazaars to the highest end designer fashion
stores in the world. Shopping for food
is even more fun, since the supermarkets are supplemented with fruit and vegetable
stands, both in independent stores and in open air markets. And you don’t need to speak Italian to enjoy
any of this because so many of the merchants, tour guides, and restaurateurs usually
speak some English. There is even a really
nice movie theater in Florence offering current popular movies in English. It is a city of beautiful churches and
piazzas, and breathtaking vistas if you climb high enough. Even a river runs
through it.
Just lace up your best walking shoes and start walking to
whatever interests you, because Florence is a walking city like no other –
everything is so compact you don’t need to walk very far to get to everything. Yes you need a coat and gloves for winter,
but winters here are much milder than the corresponding U.S. latitude of NYC
and New England – far fewer Arctic air blasts, less wind, and no snow (ok, it
did rain practically every day from February 1st to March 20th, and that got
pretty tiresome).
And then there is the food. I said this once before but it’s worth saying
again - if you cannot find a great place to eat in Florence, you are
blind. And your nose has stopped working
too. Cooking at home only serves to
further prove this point – the fruits, vegetables, meats, pastas, sauces and
breads (and olive oil… and wine….) consistently surpass anything Angie and I
have been used to in the eastern U.S.
Ok, their pizza is not so great (actually, much of it is surprisingly
bad) – but beyond that your walk around the city can easily turn into a movable
feast.
That’s not to say Florence doesn’t have its drawbacks
because it does, in fact, we are
beginning to experience one of the worst ones right now – tourists. Easter kicks off the beginning of tourist
season for Italy, and in the month of April the population of Florence has
seemingly doubled. Like any other major
Italian city, walking around Florence has its hazards – cars and buses that
will trample you in an instant, speeding scooters ready to impale you from
every direction, even if you are just standing on the sidewalk - even random
out of control bicycles that will sneak up behind you and clobber you the
moment you drop your guard. But the
massive influx of tourists exacerbate these risks exponentially – more people,
drivers, and buses competing for ever diminishing transportation arteries, the
narrow sidewalks choked with masses of people seeking whatever limited measure
of safety they may afford, and the ever increasing probability that a careless
bump or elbow or poorly timed step places you directly in the path of some
recklessly driven, fast moving vehicle that will crush you.
And then there is the incessant, never ending cigarette
smoking. Many Italians are very heavy
smokers as it is, but with the Spring arrival of the Asians and other tourists
the non-smokers don’t have a chance. By
mid-April every single cubic meter of breathable city atmosphere is tainted
with second hand cigarette smoke.
As if this weren't bad enough, you must at all times
keep your eyes trained on the sidewalk or path where you are walking. If not, you are guaranteed to step into
something bad, once described in a friend’s blog as the “ubiquitous piles of
steaming dog shit” found everywhere because most Florentines cannot be bothered
to clean up after their dogs.
This might sound like our time in Florence is ending on a
sour note; it is not, but the timing of the change of seasons serves to
underscore the need for us to take the next major step in our journey. On Monday our adventure in Italy takes a bold
new direction - we pack up and move to the small town of Impruneta. We leave Florence behind and move into an
apartment in a renovated farmhouse in the Tuscan countryside, surround by
olives groves and wine vineyards. It is symbolic
that with the emergence of Spring flowers and sunny weather, we ourselves emerge from the
convenient and reassuring confines of Florence to live an unfettered, fuller
life on a landscape limited only by our own imaginations.
This will be a dramatic change for us - the leaving
behind of the immediate access of friends and familiar Florence resources - but
this new chapter of our life in Italy creates opportunities to make new friends
and explore new adventures in the rolling hills and vineyards of the Italian
countryside that lies under the Tuscan Sun.
Ciao
