Anna's first impressions

It's been 2 weeks, and I feel like I'm finally settled here in Florence. For me, the strongest impressions of Florence have been mostly of people.
There was the woman who helped me find my platform in the train station in Rome, 7 minutes before it was about to leave; all my hard work in first semester Italian was rewarded right then, when I talked with an Italian for the first time! (I also found it interesting that she had just as much trouble reading the ticket as I did, and I felt less self-conscious about not being a native.)
The sarcastic "taxista" who said his job was "absolutely fascinating" when I asked, and the other one who seemed to gush about his job without being asked.
Then there was Maria, who sat us down in her (our) kitchen when we first arrived, serving us tea, the delicious brown bread that she bakes every day, and marmellata. She and Paolo are hilarious with their banter at the dinner table, but always willing to slow down and explain a play on words and enthusiastic about correcting our (and each other's!) speaking. "Lui e' peggiore di un bambino!" Mario says of Paolo when he's at his most ridiculous. "He's worse than a little kid!"
I also remember the Italians sitting in the bar eating their lunch as a group of loud American students came in, shouting about whether or not the Redskins had played last night, insulting each other's partying abilities, and announcing their dissatisfaction with the food. I flinched at each of these offenses, but the Italians just continued to go about their business, carrying on their quiet conversations and giving a casual glance in the direction of the students every now and then.
While I do think it's true that most people on the street avoid eye contact in passing, my overall impression is not a cold one. Once I've begun to interact with a person, they've always very welcoming and friendly. The other day we were eating in a restaurant, and I was nervous about how polite it was to leave my stuff there and go for a run while Siena, Leah, and Sylva ate their lunch. But when I got back, our server (who was also the restaurant owner) seemed genuinely indifferent to the way I was dressed and was more than happy to go back and get me a coffee. Maybe that was just professional courtesy, but--afterwards the restaurant cleared out, and he joked around with us as he sat for us to draw his portrait!
The laundromat is also a good (albeit expensive!) place to meet people. Leah and I had a nice conversation with a signora who lives two blocks away but was using the laundromat for the first time (prompting a lot of curiosity on our parts), and we also met a Senegalese muratore, or bricklayer. (I was reading a book about the Duomo, and he said he wished there was as much work to do now as there was then!) He lives in Fiesole, the Etruscan town in the hills where we finished our hike last weekend. He's been in Italy for 10 years! He spends 10 months working and 2 months visiting his family, although in 2 or 3 years he'll probably go back to Senegal. He had to drive all the way down to our laundromat to do his laundry, because everybody else in Fiesole has their own washer and dryer! This was who finally explained the Florence soccer scene to me! Basically, Florence is the Cubs and Juve is the Cardinals. We (Florence) keep having hope that we can beat them, but it never happens. (There was a game last night in Torino, Juve's home stadium, with the usual results.) He also said that Berlusconi owns (if I understood right) Inter, the Milan team. I thought it was quite interesting that everybody seems to like Inter, but nobody seems to like Berlusconi.


The fact that my entire post has been about people isn't to say that the art isn't interesting. But the art was expected and anticipated and has been built up for so long, that the people just caught me by surprise.

Pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34856259@N07/