Under the Tuscan Sun: Firenze

Still trying to catch everyone up! For this post, back-track to August 30th also known as move in day. We checked out of hotel Tuscania, boarded a bus, prayed that it did not break down and started our journey to Florence. We were 2 1/2hour bus ride away from our new homes! Bentley requires any student studying in Florence for the semester to live in a homestay to foster cultural understanding. Students live with Florentine families around the city. We are provided with breakfast and dinner Monday-Friday along with rooms, laundry and linens. I learned a small bit about my host family 20min before boarding my plane to Italy!

My friend Christine and I were going to be living with the Gross Family, below is the actual description that I recieved... as you can see we knew very little about our families before moving in!

Family Description:

Anna Maria (48 years old) speaks two languages (Italian, German; her parents come from Switzerland) and works as a restorer. She has her studio a 5 minutes’ walk away from her home and likes to invite the students to come over and show them her work. Anna is a very busy woman, but she likes to host students and cook for/with them and chat during and after dinner. She is divorced (but she has a new boy friend who sees her often), she has two adult children; both sometimes come to visit her and stay for some days in the apartment, too. Anna loves the nature and often goes for long walks in the countryside around Florence and invites students to come with her. She is always updated about local events and likes sharing this information with the students. The apartment is composed of a kitchen and a living room. For the students are two double rooms and one single room available with two bathrooms. Internet (wi-fi) is available.

We made it to Florence, which I will now refer to as Firenze (as I begin to integrate the language I'm learning) with no problems. Our bus dropped us off at Santa Novella train station where we met our school advisor, Sabina. She quickly introduced herself and said that the taxis would be here momentarily. We had been in Firenze for less than 5min and were jumping in a taxi and off to meet our host mom.

Christine, Elizabeth and I shared a cab, since I have some experience in Italy and Italian i was recruited to sit in the front and chat with the taxi driver. I gave him our new address and we were off. Ten minutes and 18 euros later we arrived at 68 via Laura, our new home for the next four months. Bags were tossed on the curb and we rang the doorbell labeled Gross, anxious to meet Anna Maria.

She welcomed us in with open arms, hugs and kisses as if we were her own children. She happily showed us around the house and gave us an hour to unpack and settle in before a brief tour walking of Firenze with her and her boyfriend Marco.

here's some pictures of home for the next four months!