What do the houses look like?
I have been in Florence for 2 whole weeks now! It is turning into my second home already! It is very much so like a city. However it is different, the buildings do not look like New York city, but they are tall. Most apartments such as my own have four floors.
My apartment is huge! It has really high ceilings with white decor on them. The floor is a smooth, cold, geometric tile. The apartment is furnished with beautiful antiques. I live in a room with my roommate where we share the bathroom. We have a shower and a bathtub just like home! Our apartment has 2 other bedrooms, a living room/dinning room, a small kitchen and a garden in the back! The back yard is big for the city but would seem small compared to the neighborhoods in New Jersey. Have you ever lived in or seen an apartment? Aren’t they smaller than a house? Why do you think they are?
The weather has been very cold here! They are having one of the coldest winters that they’ve had in years. While in the United States we are having one of the warmest winters! I have been literally freezing here when it’s usually in the 40’s or 50’s. Why do you think that is?
The Streets of Florence
Florence is a very old historic town based around the Duomo, a very large cathedral in the center of town. A lot of the roads lead to the Duomo. Florence’s roads near the center city are very very small and tight. You cannot walk on the street because the cars cannot pass you on the road. You have to make sure you’re on the sidewalk and even on some sidewalks big buses have almost touched me while they were passing! I guess when they originally made the roads they didn’t know we were going to be driving cars instead of horses!
The roads here are not like pavement at home! They are all large squares of stone that are usually not flat and have a lot of holes and davits in them. So car rides are not very smooth and I don’t think you could even skate board on them without hitting a big hole. So I make sure I step carefully so I don’t twist an ankle!
Florence like other Italian cities has a few Piazza’s. They are little town squares with open cement in the middle and little shops surrounding the outside of the square. I was surprised to not see any grass areas in Florence a lot of the town is paved road or sidewalk. My favorite piazza is Piazza della Signoria because there are a lot of very old art sculptures there, including a replica of the David by Michelangelo. Right next to this Piazza is a very big important art museum call the Uffitizi. It has very famous pieces of work inside and it also a very big and old building!
Ciao for now! Let me know if you have any questions!
Lauren Wederich
Classmates Connecting Cultures
Florence, Italy
Spring 2012