Walking and Talking

Today was day one of class! UNC students at LDM have a special pre-session Italian language class for the first two weeks. My class has about 11 people in it which is really nice when learning a new language. We have two teachers who are very friendly and encouraging, but they also don't use english with us so we are definitely being thrown in the deep end! We covered tons of information which was overwhelming, but I am thankful for my experience with Spanish since the spoken language and grammatical structures are similar. Hopefully I will improve this week, I'm trying to be optimistic! 
      
After class we have cultural activities planned for us in the afternoon by LDM. Today we had a tour of the historic center of the city led by one of the school's art history professors, Carlotta. Her detailed knowledge of the city made it's history come to life as we walked the streets.
       
One of the highlights of the tour was going to the Orsanmichele Church. Once a grain market in the ninth century, it was enclosed and became a church devoted to the patron saints of the various guilds of the city (such as the bankers or silk merchants).
  
The church itself is rather simplistic, but Carlotta let us in on a secret that the upper two floors of the church (once used for grain storage and offices) are open on Mondays to view the original bronze and marble statues of the saints that are displayed around the outside of the church (the outside ones are duplicates). 

http://www.museumsinflorence.com/foto/orsanmichele/image/arr.jpg

After learning about the various statues which are stunning works of art, we ascended to the third floor for some outstanding views of the city. It was the chilliest day of the season according to our teacher but the sun was shining brightly making the views through the huge windows even more beautiful!

After the tour I headed back to my apartment and stopped for a treat at Grom. This time I got stracciatella (kind of like vanilla with chocolate chips but oh so much better) and cioccolata fondente (dark chocolate). The cold can't keep me away from this delicious treat! 

Off to study for class tomorrow. Ciao!