Buon giorno!

So I have been in Italy almost a week now. Here is a quick recap of my week so far. I left Sunday night at 9:30 and arrived in Florence at 2:10pm Italy time. (Italy is 6 hours ahead of Connecticut)It was about 9 long hours of flying and I only slept for about 2 hours of it so I was pretty exhausted but excited to be here!! Monday we got picked up at the airport and stayed at a gorgeous hotel Grand Hotel Baglioni until Wednesday morning. While we were there we got to at dinner on the rooftop of the hotel overlooking all of Florence! It was amazing. On Wednesday morning everyone moved into their apartments. I am living with 6 girls and our apartment has 3 double rooms, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen. My apartment is on the 3rd floor and I have to climb 95 stairs to get to it! After moving into the apartments the study abroad company gave us a "survival tour" showing us the important things near our apartment such as where to get food, pharmacies and more. The past few days we have been doing our last few orientation things and getting to know the city. API (the study abroad company) also gave us a cooking class at an actual cooking school right here in Florence. We made gnocchi with a red sauce, an eggplant and tomato dish and tiramisu. It was delicious! Otherwise I have been figuring out my way around the city and walking around a lot to check everything out. The city is gorgeous and the churches here are unbelievable. I also went to see The David this week. At night I have been going out and walking around the city a lot. IN Italy people usually eat dinner around 8 and then go out around the city. There are tons of gelaterias, restauraunts, cafes etc. Often there are performances outside. A few of the nights there have been singers in the piazzas (a large open square) and one night there was a big concert band playing in a piazza. Tomorrow classes start and then this weekend we have a trip to Rome provided by API. It's been crazy since I got here but tons of fun and I am loving every minute of it! I still can't believe I am finally here and get to stay here for the whole semester. Internet isn't that common here but I'll be updating this when I get a chance. Check out my pictures I have posted because they will show most of what I talked about in this entry!

Ciao!