Snow in Florence?

This morning the weather man called for snow. It was 36 and salt was being put on the roads last night. Italians were prepared for the white flurries to hit the ground!

I couldn't help but giggle when I saw the salt on the ground. I thought to myself "if only they were in Ohio..."

Fabio, my intercultural communications teacher, said the last time they saw snow in 2010, the highways shut down and people were stranded for two days. He showed me from the floor how much it was and it maybe came up to my shin or knee, so really not that much. He said helicopters were taking people food and water, it was that bad. He said "the cars here don't have the thing you need for snow. What do you call it?" I said, "Four-wheel drive?" And he laughed his Italian laugh and said "yes."

We didn't get any snow in the city, but apparently they did get some out in the country side, according to my Italian teacher, Nicoletta, who lives out there.

One class (not mine) was even canceled today because the teacher couldn't make it into the city. If only this were the case at home!

Today I really enjoyed my Italian class. We went over homework and did exercises for the first half of the class and then the second half of the class we just talked about the differences in superstitions in Italian culture and American culture. It wasn't a planned conversation, but it was most definitely entertaining.

In Italy, the unlucky number is 17. So like how Friday the 13th is bad news bears for us, it's Friday the 17th for them. Nicoletta asked us to guess who was born on Friday the 17th, and Glen, someone in my class, said Mussolini. She bursted out laughing and said it was she who was! The entire class was laughing for a good few minutes.

They have a certain day in December that if it's bad outside, it's going to be bad for the next 40 days, kind of similar to how we rely on the shadow of the groundhog.

Breaking a mirror is bad luck, walking under a ladder, etc.

Nicoletta said it perfectly, "I don't think walking under a ladder is unlucky, it's just dangerous."

I had a three hour break, so I just hung out at the apartment and re-energized myself for my next class. I was really glad to find out that my teacher wasn't taking us out to tour Florence for the day because it was too cold out. Now, I know I've dealt with colder weather than 36 degrees, for those of you laughing, but my body has definitely adjusted to Italian weather and I was FREEZING today. I'm not looking forward to my apartment when the heat turns off for the night.

When it gets cold in this apartment, it can get cold. One night I slept in a t-shirt, sweatshirt, shorts, sweatpants with sheets, two heavy comforters and two blankets and I was still shivering.

During my Genius of Florence class we watched a National Geographic documentary of the history of Florence that my teacher was actually in as a historian. Pretty cool.

The documentary was really interesting because I was learning the history of the grounds I walk on every day. Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall of Florence has so much history behind it. I learned that there are secret passages underneath it and the building connects from building to building across the river to the other side of the Arno River. They did this so that the Medici Family, the richest ruling family in the 14th century, could stay away from the common people. It even led them to a secret passage way to the church so they could sit above the people and leave without interacting.

I wondered to myself what the buildings above me were as I crossed underneath them on the main roads and the buildings on the bridge, and now I know.

The picture on the left is called the Ponte Vecchio, meaning "old bridge." It's also now known as the jewelry bridge of Florence. The bridge actually used to have people who sold meat, and the meat made the halls of that above walkway you see smell horrid. So it was changed to jewelry.

You can see the hallway connecting from one side to the other in the very center. It goes above the little houses too, but it's more noticeable in the center.

The picture to the right is another connecting hallway. It leads to the hallway across the Ponte Vecchio bridge as seen in the picture on the left. Just some fun facts.

After class I went to the supermarket Meta and fetched my ingredients for dinner. I found a recipe online for pesto chicken. It recommended cooking rice with it because I would have more than enough of the sauce to mix with it.

I ended up tweaking the recipe and mixed the peas, tomatoes, rice and basil pesto/mayo sauce with the rice and put it on top of my chicken. It hit the spot! I was so happy because my roommates said it was really good too! I'm slowly getting better at this cooking thing.

I should really be studying for my Italian quiz tomorrow, but I'm just not feeling it. Perhaps another cup of tea and browsing the internet will be a good end to the night, and I'll wake up earlier and study. When I say early, I mean 9:00, so really not that early.