Il Dolce Far Niente

So, I'm here, and it's magical! For the first day I felt like I was walking around an amusement park--Renaissance Land if you will. I've looked at pictures of these buildings so many times that they somehow seemed unreal to me, yet here they are! Walking around feels like home now that I'm somewhat oriented to the winding streets, and since I mastered "Il dolce far niente" ("The sweetness of doing nothing") quite some time ago, I fit in just fine as I wander around in no hurry at all.

I'm living in an appartamento with 13 other girls (eeks), but fortunately I'm in the double and my roommate is a lovely Italian named Gloria. We have a wonderful time making gestures and somehow understanding each other despite the fact that neither of us speaks much of the other's language (in fact I find myself wanting to speak Spanish which does help a little). But she is very sweet and patient with me, and since Italians apparently like to clean a lot she keeps me accountable in tidying up my side of the room. And, we have a beautiful view looking out over part of town and into the countryside which makes our room all the more enjoyable.

Every day that I walk around I am amazed that I'm here. It's so easy to walk through town and just look in the shop windows and focus on dodging speeding cars and mopeds, but once I look up to the facades of the buildings and remember that most of them were built in the 13th century I just say, "wow". Literally. It's a wonderful feeling.