The photos in the below posts are from a walk near the area of our house in Antella.

Wow! (Italians use this word too because there isn't really an equivalent Italian expression.) I have been here in Florence for one week exactly. I feel like it's been forever...In my mind, it's been at least a month.

Each day my world here expands a little bit, I learn a little more, try something new, and explore a different place. It's almost impossible to describe my experience. I think my favorite parts so far have been the conversations with random Italians on the bus or in stores or on the street, when I feel happily surprised that they understand me (even when we are speaking in the simplest terms.) Italians that I have turned to for help have been extremely polite.

We get to do a lot of people-watching on our bus rides-- about 30 minutes each way from Antella to Florence. And eavesdropping... although I can't always capeesh what's being said, I'm still crazy about it all being Italian. Last summer I heard Italian spoken a few times in a crowd and I tried so hard to understand...Like Elizabeth Gilbert says in Eat, Pray, Love, Italy seems like an unimaginable paradise for those who love to hear Italian.

Every day really is full of ups and downs, as all travellers' days are, I suppose. There are challenges everywhere, and unexpected loveliness everywhere as well.

And of course one of my favorite parts of the day is trying new Italian food that my host mom, who I will call Nonna because that really is who she is, a wonderful Nonna, prepares. Tonight we ate panzanella: it's a summer salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, basil, and vinegar. Nonna told me that you should never cut basil with a knife because it changes the flavor-- instead she rips it up with her fingers. For secondi piatti we had salad and calimari alla Romana (fried.) Che buoni! And after dinner, we tasted preserved cherries (ciligie) grown in the garden behind the house. Nonna e Babbo put them in a big jar with sugar and let them sit in the sun (they couldn't agree... was it for 10 days or a few months?) They taste amazing. After sitting in the sun, they shrink down to the size of chickpeas and most of the liquid leaves them.

More later.... ciao!