July 3rd 2020: Happy belated Canada Day! I hope everyone celebrated with some Stompin’ Tom! I hope that one day my Canadian people are able to accept that Vermont maple syrup is superior. Just like I’m speaking Italian, I hope I can speak Canadian soon too! Lowry fam, teach me!
It has been another big week! Monday we started off bright and early with a trip to Fiesole (the tiny village above Florence.) We took the bus up, walked around the main piazza and headed up to the first lookout point before walking back down. The view is always stunning from Fiesole but it is even better on a clear day. You can see all the highlights of the city – Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, Palazzo Vecchio, Duomo. I took a photo of Nonna and asked her to point to one of the landmarks and she chose the University….priorities!
School this week was so much fun. The reopening of in person group classes is happening in stages. The first week was two classes, this week three and next we have four! It has been great to get to know people without the computer screen. Since there is no new content we have been reviewing and learning new strategies. One of these new activities involved the dictionary (I know…what even is it????) This was our first experience at Italian-Italian translation so it was challenging but also fun. We set competitions (have no fear, I won 3 of the 4) for who could find the most false friends (words that sound like one thing but mean something else) in a set time and my personal favorite game was choosing a random word you didn’t know and using it in a sentence…correctly!! I had tons of fun and I get really competitive so I am proud to say my trash talk skills are quite good in Italian. Our homework last weekend was to watch Tea with Mussolini (of course in Italian) and it was really interesting. This created a great discussion about World War II in Florence and we heard some shocking stories about the families of people from school. On a lighter note, we also sang MAMMA MIA! together so that was just as amazing.
I had more delicious food this week! I went back to Osteria de Peccatori for lunch after class one day and had a blast. The food was so amazing and I discovered one of my new favorite inventions. For the outdoor seating, they have little ‘spritzers’ to keep people cool because it is insanely hot. They remind me of the little water bottle fans that were the coolest thing ever at the Wellesley tournament in ’11. I also tried another dessert and because it is so hot you have to go with lemon…it’s a rule.
This week has been so much fun for many reasons but soccer has been lots of fun. Unfortunately not me playing…hopefully soon! But now it is easier than ever to watch all my favorite teams play. Fiorentina has been struggling but that doesn’t mean we stop cheering. And we’re not going to talk about Aston Villa. But for some games that won’t make you cry…the NWSL is back!!!! I urge everyone to hop on CBS All Access and watch some of the best talent in the world! We are only a few game days in and I am so excited to be watching them all month. If you need help picking a team, I can help! It is pretty easy….anyone but North Carolina!!
In other news: it has been 100 degrees nonstop and it is not for me!! Gelato and lying on the marble floor with soccer games or mamma mia! is the only remedy. I’m getting excited to float down the Ottauquechee soon!
Abbie Abroad 