Today I felt like I was back in San Francisco. There was a bus strike this afternoon so I got to walk home from work (and my first official Italian lesson" I can pronounce Firenze and gelato properly now - it's harder than you would think).. Anyways, there was a big protest against or for something with lots of marchers walking down the streets..just like the countless marches in good old SF. The unfortunate part for me was that it's been raining all day AND I got lost - so it made a 35-40 minute walk take over an hour. Ah well..guess I don't need to go run today. And I'll probably be walking back to the centro later to meet up with some friends for dinner. The week has been good and gone by fast - I made it to IKEA (felt just like being home) to buy a quilt, lamp, towels, a new plant, etc.. Even though it looks like it's walking distance on google maps, after about an hour we figured out that it really wasn't and went back to the station to take the bus. Good thing my friend Liz speaks Italian so we can ask random Italians where we are all the time..
I got a couple new students at work and my business English class starts up next week so my days are filling up. I've been trying to study Italian at least an hour a day and keep up with the BofM for institute (I swear the Italian version is twice as long). But I understood almost all of class last night and that was great!!
I also thought I'd put up some pictures of the amazing Boboli Gardens I visited a couple weeks ago...
First, though, the lizard that was hanging out in our bathroom yesterday (not something I expected to see in Italy)
And my kitchen, in case you were curious - but I think it's cute!
The Boboli Gardens behind the old Medici Pitti Palace, with Florence in the background. The gardens are Huge with lots of trees, fountains, and amazing sculptures.
The "grotto" - an indoor courtyard with statues carved out of the walls. It was Really cool, and I'm sure someone famous did most of the work (art history is not my forte).
If you look closely, you can see the red people coming out of the walls. The details and intricacy are amazing. The grotto originally housed Michelangelo's Prisoners.
Have a great weekend! My goal is to buy some boots for my cold legs and maybe go up to Fiesole to see some Tuscan countryside.
enjoyed the pictures and an update. you'll be speaking italian in no time. Miss you here. hope you have a fun weekend. we'll send you some pictures of marcus in his monkey costume. plus his first meal we are going to feed him tonight- although that might end of more on the floor than in his tummy
ReplyDeletejean