Florence has awakened me!

Scrambling throughout my dorm, I quickly throw some clothes in a bag and ran out the door (packing is not my strong suit). I made it just in time to catch the bus to the train station. I could feel my energy level rise as I realized it was my first independent travel weekend. After an anxious bus ride, we reached the station. After some confusion and help from some fellow CIMBIANS, we figured out the eTickets (which were of course, only written in Italian), and proceeded to validate them before getting on the train. Feeling the rumbling, the train slowly started its departure to Florence.

At one stop in a city, a young woman boarded the train and started walking towards me. “Posto, posto!” she exclaimed as she pointed at my seat. I froze. I could obviously tell she wanted my seat. The problem: where was I going to sit? I looked at my ticket again which said it had two seats reserved for my friend and I. No one was trying to take my friend’s seat, what was going on? The train jerked just as I was pulling out my Italian phrase book. I rummaged through the pages and managed to ask another lady where I my seat was.

She pointed to the seat my friend was in. Using lots of hand motions, I was able to clarify that I was suppose to have two seats, not just one. She looked at the ticket again and pointed to an open seat a row ahead of me. In the end, we were able to sort it out, and I realized where the second seat was located on the ticket.

The takeaway:

1. When traveling by train, you may only have one ticket that represents two different seats (they may even be in different rows).

2. Always carry a translation book with you and never under estimate the power of hand signals when communicating.

Other than the embarrassment of the whole situation, I felt a sense of pride. I did it. I was able to communicate to someone who spoke very little to no English. After that situation, my friends and I made a pack to speak only Italian when ordering at restaurants and speaking with locals. After the weekend ended, once again, I am proud to say that I think we did pretty well. Soon, we even became pretty fluent in hearing the responses in Italian.

The rest of the weekend went off without a hitch. We saw the marvelous Statute of David, went to Fiesole to overlook the enormous city, ventured in the city lights, heard live musicians, saw some fireworks being launched on a rushing river, and were even able to bargain our prices down at the market (which was probably my favorite thing)!

Florence was amazing, and I cannot wait until my next weekend of independent travel. Until then, I will continue reading up on in my Italian phrase book, and for all those who plan to study abroad, I suggest you do the same. It makes it so much more fun when you are in a bar with only locals instead of the packed tourist areas!

-Olivia

PS: I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post. Due to technical difficulties, I will not have photos until next week.