heaven.

So I'm sitting on the terrace right now, soaking up the gorgeous Tuscan sun after my first long, leisurely sleep of this trip. There's nothing left to worry about so now I am just sleeping like a big ol' rock.

Last night I had my first truly Italian notte: after a delicious homecooked meal of chicken with funghi misti, insalata, and the rest of the torta di mela from our first night here, I got myself dressed, called a cab (in Italian, chiaro), ran down my strada privata in my cute little boots and scarf (its already getting chilly here- ☹), and made my way down to Piazza dei Ferrucci, on the other side of the Arno. I met up with Mel and Marinna, my two friends who are actually also fine arts majors at USC (Mel I knew from before, Marinna I just met here) and Marinna’s 23-year-old host brother, Luca, and his friends at a English pub called Joyce (un po’ inautentico, if you ask me, but what are you gonna do). After a drink there we hopped into one of Luca’s friend’s TINY Italian cars to go to none other than Piazza Savonarola – the same Piazza where our campus is! At night apparently the Piazza turns into a huge hangout for 20-something Italians, where a newsstand-by-day turns into a bar when the sun goes down, where they give you pretty much whatever they feel like and you take it with pleasure (we were given two giant Heinekens, and WAY too much change – it pays to hang around swamped bars haha) which is verrry good to know, for those nights when I’m not done with studio until 7 pm… and all in all, the night was just really fun. We met some really nice people, many of whom did not speak a word of English, but whom I miraculously was totally able to communicate with anyway, and I even managed to come away with some phone numbers and promises of a tour of the best nightlife later in the week. Non c’è male…

So not only did I learn that I actually am pretty damn good at Italian, but that it really is true what they say – Italian men are freakin' gorgeous. Period. At least ¾ of them are attractive, with about ½ being justifiably ogle-worthy. I think I'm going to like it here.