I had a realization that I have been to Firenze, left Firenze, and spent 2 days in Roma and not written even one blog! I want to blame this on my new found sleepiness thanks to the baby growing in my uterus, but I know that would be a lie. The truth is that I have had plenty of time to blog, I am just out of inspiration. You’re probably thinking “this girl is in ITALY and doesn’t have inspiration?!” but remember that I have been away from anything remotely normal and comfortable for over 5 months now and this girl is really ready for something comfortable and not something new every week. I am going to try to not be a drag though and I am going to tell you about the interesting things and the blessings that we came across in Firenze.
We started our week there with a terrible day of moving. We took a train from Cecina to Firenze and then got off at the wrong stop and had to take another train from the city center to a different train station where we got on the tram for 20 minutes until finally we arrived in the neighborhood where the apartment we were staying in was located. We then had a 15 minute walk with two huge bags and two huge BAD attitudes. We were in such a rush leaving Cecina that I didn’t eat breakfast or pack a snack, which is like STUPID when you are pregnant or even if you aren’t. That makes for a terrible mood. No food combined with the hottest day in Italy yet and two huge bags and a girl who isn’t supposed to be lifting large things just made things awful. By far moving from place to place has been the worst part about our Europe adventure. Anyway, as soon as we got settled in our room I told Jared I would be getting rid of my big suitcase and as many clothes as necessary and downsizing so that he would not hurt his back carrying two huge suitcases everywhere. Now I can carry my own up and down the stairs, but I do miss my clothes already, especially my warm, big sweatpants.
We spent the week with a young couple and their precious dog. Their names are Zala and Marco and the dog’s name is Lulu. Zala is from Slovenia and speaks Slovenian, English, and Italian all fluently. Marco has learned English from her and is also fluent. It was refreshing to spend some time with people our age. It brought us so much joy to spend some time with a dog. We even got to dogsit one night! Zala was as sweet as ever and surprised us in the morning with fresh pastries as a thank you. Zala and Marco were a blessing in other ways as well. I was having my bottom wisdom tooth break through and the pain was unbearable and I wasn’t sleeping well, but being pregnant I can’t take hardly any kind of medicine. After about two nights of the pain I asked Zala if she knew of a pharmacy where I might be able to get a natural pain killer. She and Marco took time out of their day to drive us to the pharmacy, and then to another one to find me a pain killer that was safe for me and the baby. Since I speak very little Italian Marco translated for me and found us a cheap and effective medicine. Italy is awesome because health care is basically free and medicine is cheap. Even for Americans.
When Jared and I weren’t spending time in the apartment and taking Lulu on walks or working we were riding the tram into the city center and enjoying Firenze! It is my number two city officially. Barcelona still comes in first and then Firenze is a close second. Jared likes it as well. It is just one of those cities where there is so much history and culture that you can’t help but just love it. We really enjoyed just taking long walks around the city up and down the narrow and winding streets and admiring all of the old buildings. They are all so huge and majestic. They are art. It’s also amazing just looking down the river and seeing the arched bridges and the gondolas floating. I FELT like I was in Italy.
Our transition from Florence to Rome was much easier because we had much less luggage and also because our current landlady picked us up at the train station to make it easier on us. We are staying in a cute apartment 30 minutes outside of the city center in a pretty bad neighborhood from what we can tell. Jared won’t let me go anywhere alone. I pretend to be annoyed, but honestly, it’s sweet. We have been working hard since it is the beginning of the work week and we haven’t seen much of the city itself. We have big plans for the weekend though including Vatican City and Sistine Chapel and lots of other famous architecture in Rome.
The last two days have been funny prego days for me though as far as food cravings go. I actually went to the store yesterday and couldn’t bring myself to plan any of the weeks meals because all I could think about was fruit salad and cereal. I bought random fruits and a box of Special K and ate it for breakfast AND lunch yesterday. It was the only thing that sounded edible. Today I was craving spicy food, which is a miserable thing to crave when you are in Italy, so I decided to make a trip to the grocery store mid-day to see what I could find. I came home with tortilla chips, ingredients for some spicy pico, and some cheese. Nachos! Anyway, I was crazy and put a crushed, dried chili pepper on my tongue because the pico wasn’t spicy enough. That was dumb. I also ate all of the nachos and pico. That was dumb too.
Anyway, it is 25 days from today until we get home. Jared and I are trying hard to “be here now” and not think too much about home because it gives us an attitude that makes us want to not take advantage of the fact that we are in Italy, Greece, and NYC for the next 25 days. We have lots of opportunities ahead of us and lots of places still to see before we can take the final flight home to what is comfortable and known.
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