Day three:walkabout

A park I stopped at outside of Giardino della Fortezza

My first gelato

Vespas, scooters, and bicycles line the streets

These bike paths are along every street - it's awesome

First day of class was today and it seems like it's going to be really interesting. For taking a history of the renaissance and reformation course I'd say I'm in the right place. I have an hour and a half between classes so I went to a park just outside of our school to sit, read, and witness dove rape. The birds here are very persistent in trying to find a mate and at times I even felt bad for the females. Enough of that though. After classes and lunch (everyday for lunch the people who run the hotel/dorm we're staying at provide a huge meal for us, it's great) I wanted to get a feel for the layout of the city so I grabbed my backpack and stuffed a map in my pocket (like I need one) and set out. There was a cool park outside of some fort, where I was told very sternly that I was not allowed to go into, so I sat on a stone bench and got to read for an hour or so. So far there are three things that I love about Italy 1) everyone kind of speaks english if you give Italian a shot, 2) there are as many coffee shops in Florence than there are Mcdonald's in NYC if not more, and 3) EVERYONE rides a cool old school bike, literally hundreds are chained up on every street. So after my 5 hour excursion I thought I'd look at a map to see where all I had gone - turned out I didn't venture out very far, it just seemed like I did because I stopped so many times either in a cafe or a gelato place, even a couple bike shops (I couldn't resist). Oh well, I'll have plenty of time to see the whole city - although I feel like I could stay in Florence the whole month and still not see everything. Overall there is just a lot of walking around whether during the day or at night and I've taken a nap everyday which I plan on keeping up on.