I flew Alitalia on a 5:55pm flight from Boston to Rome, 7 hours and then from Rome to Florence in 30 minutes. Both went by extremely fast. We were given 2 meals from Boston to Rome (why do I feel like I'm recording a prison transport right now?) The first was a dinner of ravioli, pickled vegg
ies (ew,) some kind of chicken (which I didn't eat,) green beans, fruit salad, cheese and bread-a large, well-rounded meal. The second was a cheese danish and sandwich with ham and melted swiss.. mmmm. We arrived in Rome at 7:30am Rome time, 1:30am @ home. Our next flight left at 10:30 and we were in Florence by 11 (if you didn't already put that together yourself, I must've been tired writing this.) All I could think when we landed was that Florence looked a lot like the Dominican Republic- poor, dirty and covered in graffiti. It turned out though that it was only that way near the airport, and as we left the McDonalds, Ikea and Blockbuster behind we made our way into "old" Florence which is everything I imagined it would be, but better. It's so classicly European with enormous villas and painted shutters and flower boxes. The weather is perfect for January, sunny and in the 50's. There are stores everywhere and they're all having huge sales right now. I can't wait til I have a second to go shopping. So far we've been unbelievably busy. I'm in a hotel called Grand Hotel Baglioni. It's massive and we have stained glass windows in our room, along with a bidet! Once we were checked in we had a few hours until an orientation and dinner that API planned for us. We had pasta, rosemary turkey, salad and bread with oil. Then we went back to the hotel to change and go out. One lesson I
learned right away is not to bother wearing stilettos if you have a long walk ahead of you here. Initially we were in a large group of kids but after a thirty minute walk to nowhere everyone split up. I went with 3 other girls to a small bar called Slowly. They made very intricate, decorative and expensive drinks. I had an amazing raspberry mojito! It was about 11pm at this point, yet the bar was fairly quiet. Near midnight it got busier. That's another thing that's so different here: the bars and clubs don't get busy til midnight or later. Some don't even open until 11 or 12 and then don't close until between 4am and 6am. It's crazy! But I guess you adjust to the later, slower schedule. Anyway, it's only the first night and we haven't slept since yesterday so we're home at 12:30 with sore feet. Buona notte!
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