Student Correspondent News: Florence According to Matilde

Ciao a Tutti!

(Hello to all)

I have begun my Fall semester here in Florence/Firenze with CET.

Home to Michelangelo, Dante, Galileo, Firenze is chock-full of things to see and do, and is also seems to be chock-full of tourists as well…when we asked our Italian teacher, Matilde, when the tourist season would be dying down, she informed us that it never actually “dies” down. Here is to a semester of fighting camera toting, starry eyed tourists in order to get to class. (But who can blame them? Firenze is incredible, and I feel as though I must look like a tourist every day walking past the Duomo, but Matilde told us that our mission is to “become a local.”)

Things I have learned from Matilde:

Even if you find the “perfect Italian man,” you will probably have to deal with “la suocera,” meaning, his mother-in-law. She advised us girls (there are 14 ragazze in Italian 100) that before we commit to marrying an Italian, we must check to see if he has a mother.

Scarpe=shoes. One of the most crucial words to know here. Every other window is filled with shoes.

Soccer, (or calcio for the Italians), is followed religiously. We found this out when we went to see the Italian National team play Slovenia our first week here.

Thankfully, the Italians won, because if they had not, we may have had to beware of an angry crowd. Matilde also informed us that if on a Monday she was in a bad mood, most likely it was because the Firenze team had lost. (Games are played on Sunday).

Soccer in Italy is not like anything I have ever seen in the states…perhaps the cult following is similar to football, but we do not have a “United States Football Team.”

The entire crowd began to chant “I-ta-li-a, I-ta-li-a” multiple times, yelling at the referee as one, cheering on Mario Balotelli, the forward who has incredible control over the ball at all times.

Here is a picture of Giampaolo Pazzini scoring the first (and only) goal of the match (Mario is number 9).

If I were to interpret this particular moment, Slovenia is the guy in white who knows he is about to be beaten, his hands up in protest as if to say “no! stop! no goal!”

Mario stands off to the side waiting….waiting….wondering if Pazzini is going to make it,

And Pazzini looks like a cross between a pouncing tiger and a pterodactyl.

As you can see, very exciting. From our point of view in the stands.

Also during this week, we climbed to the highest viewpoint of Florence, within the city walls.

Despite the fact that I seem to have two gelatos a day, (un cono piccolo per favore), and that I have taken a semester long hiatus from exercising, I think that all of this walking/climbing/panting/puffing will make up for it.

Once we arrived, the view was incredible.

There’s the Duomo in the distance!!

Side note: from my window in my apartment I can see the Duomo. If you ever get lost…which tends to happen more often than not, try to find your way back to the Duomo. Instead of “All roads lead to Rome,” in Florence, “all roads lead to the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore.

Here is the group that climbed up to the viewpoint and took a picture with a replica of Michelangelo’s David, who happens to be one of the more important symbols of Florence. I think I am going to make it my mission to see how many I can find throughout the city. So far, I think this one was number 2 of the Michelangelo copies. There are many other Davids by other artists.

David and the ladies…which is, well, nothing new.

Arrideverci for now!

Until I write again, many, many gelatos later,

Clara Martin, Vanderbilt Univeristy

CET Florence Student Correspondent, Fall 2011