Arriving In Firenze!

After almost 22 hours of traveling, we finally made it! I was thankful enough to be traveling with 11 other UofM students from my program. Our flight was scheduled to leave DTW at 7pm on January 7th. Around 7:15 they began to board to plane, only to be kicked off due to "technical difficulties." The pilot informed us that it would take at least two hours to unload and reload our luggage onto a new plane. We boarded the next airplane around 9:40 and took off around 11:30. Because of the delay we missed our connecting flight in Frankfurt at 11:30, and had to wait for another that left at 4:30. We finally made it to Florence at 6pm, grabbed our luggage and headed out on the search for a taxi. Two of the other students I was with can speak Italian, so they took the lead when talking with the cab drivers. When we arrived, dinner was waiting for us. We had pasta al dente, salad, cheese, and fresh clementines (which are in season here and are delicious!). The remainder of the night was spent unpacking, and trying to get some sleep.

While the large city I am staying in is Florence (or Firenze in Italian), I am technically in a town called Sesto Fiorentino, which is basically a smaller town six miles outside the city . There are about 40 students from both UofM and the University of Wisconsin, and we are staying in the Villa Corsi-Salviati. The Villa is beautiful and I will put up pictures soon for you to see. There are many gardens on the ground and they are considered to be one of the most treasured Renaissance style gardens in Italy.

I am living in a triple room, with two other girls, Caroline and Savannah, who also go to UofM with me. Our room is right off of the Villa library. Here are some pictures:

The library right outside our room

The door to our's & our neighbors rooms

Our closet area

The bedroom

My Bed

The Bathroom

Saturday was spent in orientation meetings. We learned more about the classes we will be taking, met the professors and Villa staff, and received more information about Florence and Sesto. We also took a walking tour around Sesto and a tour of the Corsi-Salviati family's private quarters in the Villa. The Count, until recently, actually spent much of his time here, but he passed away before this Christmas. Here are some pictures of this part of the villa:

The ceiling in one of the rooms

Tomorrow we take a tour of downtown Florence, and then classes start on monday, but that's all for now. Arrivederci!