Mia Avventura Italiana

I left Massachusetts expecting to go to a warmer climate.  Not by much, but slightly warmer.  On top of the abnormally warm winter we were having in Mass/Rhode Island, I didn’t really expect to have to worry much about the climate here in Florence.  But of course, life doesn’t go as planned.  It has been cold FREEZING here.  It says its only around 30 degrees most days but the wind is an absolute killer.  It has snowed here three times; no accumulation but still scared the Florentines into hiding.  Right now I’m sitting in my kitchen wearing leggings, jeans, thick socks, a tank top, sweater, and sweatshirt and I am still freezing.  My first attempt to ward off the cold was to make tea… well it worked for about the 5 minutes that it stayed hot.  I am currently letting my second attempt simmer on the stove as we speak: chili.

Since I wasn’t prepared for this climate I only brought about 5 heavy sweaters.  I literally have been wearing them on rotation since we have been here… sometimes two days in a row because the only thing anyone saw was my coat.  Since I had been wearing them for so long, I thought it was about time to do some laundry.  Here the washing machine is about the size of a basketball, and there aren’t any driers.  Instead, they have drying racks about the same size as my bed.  It works just fine for me, but my clothes were kinda crunchy after letting them dry.  Hopefully I can get fabric softener which will help.

The past couple of days I’ve been avoiding going outside for too long, but if you have to leave your apartment you’ll always be outside for a while, especially when you can’t find the place you are looking for.  Now I’ve always had some issues of not being observant enough and walking right by where I was supposed to go, but this one takes it to another whole level.  I was trying to find one of the 3 bookstores I have to go to in order to find all of my books.  I literally walked up and down the street at least 5 times.  But it wasn’t just me looking for it.  My flatmate Jori was with me and she couldn’t even find it.  Eventually it got dark and my toes were numb so we gave up and tried again today.  We walked up the street and we gave up right around 2pm when all of the stores are closing (stores close from 2-3:30ish so owners can go home and have lunch).  On our way back down the street, we FINALLY spotted it and of course, it was closed.  Tomorrow is Sunday, so of course it will be closed again.  Even this fountain was frozen!  And once again, this all comes back to IT IS TOO COLD.