BENVENUTI A FIRENZE -Jasi

FINALLY after one week, David arrived and Team Florence is complete: Joshua the Guide, David the interpreter and myself the pharmacist. But how come this all happened? Lets start at the beginning…

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Mr. Crewe, (the biggest supporter of our blogs)

I warmly welcome you to the journey of the Florence team, from my view. I promise to make you laugh once in a blog. The next three weeks will be full of work, learning the Italian language, pizza, pasta, gelato, the one and only Italian hand gesture and last but not least, life enjoyment to the fullest! Originally my plan was to do an ERASMUS+ internship in France, the country I speak the language of. But things got different and now here we are, in BELLA ITALIA! But you know what they say? “The best things happen when you least expect them”.

T-Shirts, Shorts, Dresses, Shoes, Socks, do I have everything packed? Normally I start packing one or two hours before leaving, because my highest efficiency is activated when I am stressed out or under pressure. Work smart, not hard. But now, Ladies and Gentlemen, for the first time in history, you will witness a personal premiere of mine: 6 hours before my departure, I was already ready to go! That probably happened because of my panic to survive 3 weeks with a 8kg allowed handbag (there was also a 20kg suitcase allowed, but we have to keep it dramatic now). In that anxiety, I packed 2/3 of my closet, an iron and the whole house-pharmacy of my family – and I am not even joking… in the end my luggage had 10 and 24 kilograms instead of the allowed weight of 8 and 20 kilograms. Then, after a few naps, re-checking all of my stuff and going up and down in my room, I got to the bus station at midnight, yes you read it right: BUS STATION. Because of the high plane and train prices, David and I decided to try out the Flixbus. Would be an unique experience, extremely cheap (only 33€ from SBG to florence !!!!) and fun because we would be together. Well, things came differently, David got Covid, I went on the bus ride, a 3-h-stop in Triest at 5am, everything closed, in total 13h journey with the bus, completely alone. To lay the dramatically writing aside for a moment, it was actually pretty relaxed, I slept almost the whole ride, made friends with an Australian and a Persian, ate my snacks and looked at the coast we were driving along.

Now I am in Florence, still alive. Florence has so many historical sights, interesting places and good restaurants I had to see or try out, that I didn't come around to eat the main dish. After one week, I still haven't eaten a single pizza. Can you believe it? But speaking of the historical sights, I want to take you back to 1911. In this year an italian man named Vincenzo Peruggia perpetrated the greatest art theft of the 20th century: he lifted the Mona Lisa (original: La gioconda) from the Louvre in Paris, hid it under his dinner jacket and brought it back to Italy. There he hid the famous painting in a hotel, where the it was finally found and Peruggio was arrested. Shortly after, he was released and celebrated as a hero, patriotism of course. The best thing about that story is: I do my internship in that legendary hotel! Its called The Frame Hotel – La Gioconda Ritrovata. As the name already reveals, the frame of the painting was found here, that's why you can find numerous copies of the Mona Lisa in this building. Also, the room that Peruggio was in, is still built with the same measures as 100 years ago – who knows, maybe you will find the Mona Lisa in that room again!

For now, read (see) you in the next blog, stay tuned for more adventures…