My time living la dolce vita in Florence is going swimmingly. It’s more ridiculously beautiful than I remembered, and I just feel really happy and content being back here. I’m sure the twice-daily quartini of vino rosso, the copious amounts of pasta, and the many cappuccini I’ve been consuming help.
I’m staying in a hostel on the outskirts of the city, which isn’t ideal, but it’s clean and small, which is nice. There’s an irritating Russian dude who won’t quit talking to me even when I’m blatantly rude (i.e., him: Do you speak Italian? Me: No. Him: Do you want to learn? Me: No. Him: Why not? Me: Because I’m tired and I want to be left alone. Him: Ah. I speak beautiful Italian. Me: That’s nice. I have to go now). Turns out he’s in the same room as me, and homeboy had the nerve to come into the room at midnight when I was in bed with the lights off and ask if I was awake. I ignored him and pretended to sleep. He repeated, “Jill, are you awake?” louder and louder until I finally answered. Then he came over and shoved a glass of Moscato (a sweet desert wine) in my face and commanded me to drink it. I told him to fuck off (in slightly nicer terms), and he pestered me about why I wouldn’t drink it. I’m in bed. I already brushed my teeth. I’m tired. Finally I asked him to please go away and he left.
Tonight he asked me if I like American football and I said no. Then I got a lecture on how he already knew that, because men and women have different brains, and men’s brain chemistry makes them like sports. So he’s a real winner.
But other than that, Florence is great. I studied here in college, and it’s really strange to be a tourist in a place I used to live. But it’s nice — I’m finally doing all the things I never bothered to do when I lived here. And I’m re-visiting my favorite restaurants and wandering through my old neighborhood. It’s also a relief to be able to communicate with people again, even if only rudimentarily — I was only in Germany for 24 hours, but not being able to speak the language really grated on me. My Italian is pretty bootleg, but at least I can get the basics done. Tomorrow I head up to Fiesole (a town outside of Florence), and after that begin my tour of Tuscan towns (Siena, Volterra, San Gimignano and Lucca). I’m posting pictures here because my memory card is filling up fast. I’m not editing them, just posting whatever is on my camera, so some of them are pretty poor — don’t judge. I think I have at least a few good ones.
I don’t want to leave.