Mia Avventura Italiana

After Spring Break, I expected life to go back to semi-normal; back to classes, cooking, no longer living out of a suitcase or on a bus.  While all of that did resume back to normal, there were two things that did change.  Both were explosions, but instead of destruction, these brought tourists and mosquitoes.

I live in Florence, so clearly there are going to be tourists here at almost all times of the year.  I knew it was going to get busier as the weather got warmer and as time drew closer to the summer, but I never expected to have this much of a change within a week.  It has gotten so bad, that I have to leave for classes 10 minutes earlier than I normally would, and 15 minutes earlier if my walk to class passes the Duomo.  In this explosion of tourists I have come to realize why the Italians act certain ways.  I always thought it was really rude when Italians would just run straight into you when you’re walking down the street instead of taking the half step to the side.  Well now I understand that they are like this because tourists are rude.  They stand in the middle of the only walkway and leave the non-walkway areas completely open while taking pictures of the city.  They stop in the middle of the sidewalk to check a map instead of stepping to the side then checking it.  They don’t move when you ask politely.  If I had to deal with that day in and day out of my life, I’d get pissed off and run people over too.  Oh wait, I do have to deal with it, and yes I have taken the same approach the Italians do.

The Thursday after I got back from break, Micayla and I took a trip up to the Piazza Michael Angelo.  We figured since it was across the river and a decent walk outside the city center there would be less tourists there.  It is a beautiful place where you can see the entire city.  It is so beautiful it should be swarming with tourists, but its not.  I mean, there is definitely tourists, but no where near as many as in the main city.  Most of the people there are other study abroad students reading or sharing a bottle of wine, or just enjoying the view.

The other explosion I personally hate more than the first; mosquitoes.  Now, I’m allergic to normal mosquitoes.  The bites will blow up to the size of a quarter and last about two days.  Well they have super mosquitoes here.  These blew up to the size of half dollars and they lasted almost a week.  They also scabbed over and left scars even if I didn’t itch them.  At night I wore sweatpants, and a hoodie with the hood up and the blanket up around my face.  Somehow I ended up with a bite on the bridge of my nose.  These things are the spawn of the devil, I swear.