Day Six

Tuesday Jan. 12 2010

Today we went to the biggest park in Florence, just west down the river. On Tuesday mornings the park is full of people and vendors. Our Italian professor Nicolleta referred us there. The walk was about 30 minutes but it was very much worth it. We saw some pretty amazing views along the way- the river and city view was incredible (I took a lot of pictures). We had to go in between orientation classes today because apparently the market is only on Tuesday mornings. When we got to the park, we were shocked to see almost a mile long line of market vendors stretched down and around a lake at the park. We found food, clothes, and accessories- shoes, toys, fabrics, and scarves surrounding us on both sides. Our teacher was right- this definitely had to be the biggest marketplace in Florence, and it only goes on Tuesday mornings! It was very cheap too- I bought a couple scarves for a euro each, a dress shirt for 4 and 10 euros, and a belt for 4 euros. By 1:00 sellers were packing up and leaving- so for an event so huge its crazy to think it only last 5 hours one day a week. That’s Italy for you.

Tonight we went to a place called “Be Bop” where we saw a Beatles tribute band. They were pretty good, but they had some trouble hitting the high notes. Regardless, we had a great time. And it seemed like everyone from Kent was there. The place was packed with people dancing and sitting around in tables and private booths. One of the ID girls got up on stage and danced with John Lennon! Lol They played 2 sets that lasted about an hour each- I made me miss playing the drums on stage for a little. I kept thinking I had to get ready to play cause I was up next- then I realized I was in Florence.

Music is Florence I’ve learned so far is pretty much just American music- billboard tops in America find there way to Europe and are played on TV, radios, and bars in Italy as well. Most dance clubs and bars play American hip hop and pop music and techno. The crazy thing is that they are played in English and Italians know the words! In fact, mostly everyone here knows some English (if not all- some in fact are very fluent in English). It’s funny to think that Americans come to Italy and don’t know how to speak their language yet they know how to speak ours and they don’t even have to visit our home country.