February 7, 2009

went running in the morning. I ran over to a park just outside of central Florence. Most of it was fenced off for construction, though, so I ran down some unfamiliar streets in the city.
went into the center of the city to do some sketching for my Architecture in Context class. It was so warm when I went running that I wore shorts and flip-flops to go out and sketch. From the looks the Italians were giving me, you'd think I had ten heads. They were still all bundled up in scarves and winter coats, with their umbrellas at the ready just in case it started sprinkling.
walked all the way to Campo di Marte which is on the other side of the city, a ways outside the old walls. We're supposed to sketch the spiral stairs at the stadium at Campo di Marte for Context, so I took some pictures and walked around. I found the public pool our Italian teacher had told us about. This part of the city was pretty different than the part inside the where the walls used to be. As you move further away from the center, the buildings get newer and more modern looking. Most of the buildings inside the walls still have the same style and architectural language as the older buildings, just newer, but once you go outside the walls, there are a lot more buildings that have their own style. Outside the walls looks more like the kind of city we're used to.


Observations:
One big thing I've noticed around Florence is that Italians really like to sing. You can't walk down the road without hearing someone singing to himself. I even saw a man on a cell phone all of a sudden break out into song while still on the phone.

Maybe it's being in a city, but the rain doesn't seem to keep people inside. The Italians and the Asian toursits will all whip at their umbrellas at the slightest hint of rain, but even when it's pouring, they still go out and do whatever they planned on doing that day.

As an American tourist, I expected to receive not necessarily hostility from the Italians but I expected at least some of them not to be very welcoming. It's been exactly the opposite, though. Aside from the weird guy who threw plastic at me (which was probably an accident anyway), everyone has been so friendly and welcoming. Some people, like the man at the market, seem to get really excited when they figure out I'm American. At the Joshua Tree, the pub that a lot of our group likes to frequent, the owners give us free drinks several times a night just because they like us. Maybe they do that sort of thing more often here anyway, but I was very surprised that even though I order nothing, they give me a free drink along with everyone else. Some of my friends have received the same treatment at other pubs as well. The people in the shops are very welcoming too. I always feel slightly rude when I go into a place and cannot speak Italian, but I guess they're just so used to tourists here that several people have been really excited when I try to order in Italian. When I got gelato the other day, the woman taking our orders complimented me on the way I ordered even though she wasn't much older than us and spoke perfect English. From what I've seen in Florence, Americans do not have the bad rep here that we think we do, at least in areas that see a lot of tourists. There are swarms of Asian tourists everywhere on two-day guided tours and they get in the way everywhere. Sometimes I wonder if people are just glad we're not Asian, so they give us special treatment.