On our first day in Florence, the group settled down into our apartments. In addition to the necessities of a bedroom and bathroom, our new homes for the next month were equipped with a living room and kitchen along with a washing machine, fridge, freezer, and many fans to keep cool during the heat wave. We started out our day jet lagged and groggy as we forced ourselves to stay awake and take in the beautiful views off of the balcony of our apartment. As a group, we got through the day with cards, wifi, and getting to know each other over the fully stocked kitchen of Nutella, breadsticks, and other Italian goodies leading up to dinner.
After a nice Italian meal, where the cheerful waiter sang to us, we wandered around the streets of Florence, passing an outdoor film showing for locals, and a delicious cup of gelato to finish off our day.
Our first full day in Italy was comprised of just what was needed, the pool.
After Nutella on toast and orientation, the group walked through Florence to the more local area where the pool was located. Full of true Italians and clear blue water, the Olympic sized pool was perfect to cool off from the 100-degree weather. We all wore swim caps, a bit unusual to us, but embraced it. Although I never tried, many jumped off of the various sized diving boards, while I stuck to the pool and the picnic we had set up on the grassy area. Although it had only been two days together, through the long traveling and living spaces we all got to know each other much better.
In addition to the pool and orientation today was one of the girls birthday’s, so after dinner out, we passed a gelato place with a chocolate wall and we enjoyed gelato to end our day.