home sweet home.... well sort of

Apartments in Firenze are a little different than what we are used to in the States. With that being said, we'd like to tell you a little about our pads. A few of these things we have mentioned in earlier blogs, but we're going to run through it all again just to make sure you all get a clear picture....

Italian pads are much smaller than the average American home. Beds are smaller, rooms are smaller, bathrooms are smaller... you get the picture. The windows, on the other hand, are enormous. Windows are in every room... it's a must with the no air conditioning. So every morning we wake up to the sunlight (it goes down around 9 at night and is up by 5 in the morning) and go straight to these windows to feel the fresh morning air. Our kitchens are pretty traditional. Refrigerator, toaster, oven and sink. To light the stovetop, you have to press a red button while you turn the knob... For us it takes a good three of four tries. Bedrooms consist of a twin size bed, desk, armoire, and bedside table. In addition, they have a switch on the bedside table which allows you to turn off your lights while in bed..... we're definitely going to miss this when we go back to the States. The bathroom is probably the biggest difference. A shower is common, rather than a bathtub, and for Jaclyn's pad, the bathroom is quuuuiiiiiittttteee unique. And don't forget you must open the window after showering to prevent mold from growing on the walls. They also have a bidet, allowing you to wash your feet after a long day roaming Italy's medieval cobblestone streets. Laundry rooms differ in both of our apartments, and remember, dryers do not exist and the average washer run is approximately two and a half hours. Jennifer had her first experience with hanging her laundry on clothes pin outside her window.. within an hour her towels and clothes were dry, remarkable! Can we say energy efficient? We'll continue to discuss in more detail below with a brief description of each of our pads... hope you enjoy!

Jaclyn's Pad: Jaclyn's apartment resides in a wooonderful location, in the Piazza of Santa Maria Novella which is a hop, skip, and jump away from the Duomo and surrounded by delicious restaurants (A piazza is an open square or public place, very common in Italian cities and the Santa Maria Novella is the first Dominican church in Florence, absolutely beautiful). We love to sit in the midst of the square in the late afternoon, watching the tourists and businessman roaming the streets. To us, we think of Jaclyn's apartment as a traditional Italian villa. Small and quaint with the most unique bathroom anyone could ever witness. A bidet, sink, toilet, and shower all within a 3'x6' space (make sure to check out the quote below for a better description). We hope you can imagine bathing within this space, perhaps the picture below can do it a little justice. And up above is Santa Maria Novella, Jaclyn's neighbor.. does life get any better?





Jennifer's Pad: First and foremost, Jennifer's apartment is a solid 105 steps up. We get quite a workout everyday just trying to get to the top floor of our building. Although its quite the climb, we must admit the view is worth every step. We must also note that our pad is located about a solid twenty minute walk outside of tourist central. We admit that it is a pretty lengthy distance, however, we are so blessed to be able to walk past the world's oldest botanic garden, The Accademia (home of Michelangelo's David), and The Duomo on our way to class everyday. The morning we arrived in Florence we received the keys to our apartment (4 keys to be exact) and they are by far NOT the traditional American keys. They do, however, make us feel quite special, especially the giant skeleton keys. Below is a picture of the GIGANTIC entrance doors to our building, our version of an Italian bedroom, and the view from our bedroom windows.


Excerpts from our journals:
"I can use the toilet, wash my feet in the bidet, brush my teeth, and bathe all at the same time." (Jaclyn's bathroom experiences)

"You know I don't speak Italian." (Jennifer's reaction to the supermarket cashier after he, for the past 2 nights, had spoken to her for about 5 minutes in straight Italian).


Thursday night we have an Italian cooking class, (yes we shall be professionals when get back to the States) and this weekend we are looking forward to a trip to Rome with the entire crew. So much territory to cover within a 3 day span, but we are confident that we can cover a good bit of ground and share it with you in the upcoming week. We hope to get in an additional post about our trip to Cinque Terre this past Sunday before the end of the week. We love reading your comments and cannot thank the man up above and our parents enough for allowing us to having this opportunity.. forever grateful :) Until then...

Molto Amare,

Jack and Jenn

CIAO!!!!