Firenze: A Foreign City that I Will Soon Call Home

After almost a full 24 hours of travel, two airplanes, three airports, one movie, not enough hours of sleep and two surprisingly par vegan airplane meals, I have arrived in Florence! The 12 of us students on the group flight from San Francisco were greeted by a member of the Syracuse University Florence (SUF) staff at the Florence airport. We were then escorted to a bus which took us to our hotel where we will be staying for the first two nights until we receive our housing assignments.

Upon our arrival at the hotel, we were paired with a roommate, given our keys and allowed to relax. Of course, I did not want to spend my first few hours in a foreign city resting in my hotel room. So after we dropped our bags and got settled, my roommate, Tessa, and I ventured down to the lobby where we stumbled upon a walking tour! A graduate student took a few of us around the city, showing us different piazzas, and trying to give us a sense of direction around the city. However, feeling the fatigue of a long day of travel and jetlag on my body, none of the directional cues stuck in my memory …go figure. The tour ended with a complementary gelato on the steps of the Duomo. Can you think of a better way to begin experiencing Florence?

After a few hours of walking it was time for dinner in the hotel, where I ran into friends Tiffany and Claire! It will be an early night for all of us as we attempt to beat the jet lag and get our days off to a good start tomorrow.