Living Like A Florentine and Embracing Their Culture

For my Food Studies Program in Florence, Italy, I was able to live in a home with five other students in my program from the University of Pittsburgh. I loved the house I stayed in and I am grateful for having such a great landlord and the ability to make amazing friends. Although we faced some challenges living in this house a couple of times, there were many positives about living there and I had such a great time.
               I stayed with five other people from the University of Pittsburgh in a three-story house within a nice neighborhood, 30 minutes away from our campus. Although the walk every morning was far to get to our campus, it was nice to be able to live in a home within an actual Florentine neighborhood away from touristy areas. I felt like I was an actual Florentine living in Italy going about my day. It was also nice that most of us got our own bedrooms, and we had three bathrooms to share between the six of us. We also had two grocery stores within walking distance from us, and some really good bars for a nice coffee in the morning. We were also about a three-minute walk from one of the train stations near us, making travelling on the weekends much easier. We had a public market that was about a 10 minute walk from the house, where I would go to buy fresh fruits, veggies, pastas, and cheeses to cook meals at home. I was able to make this pasta salad with homemade pasta, fresh cheese, basil, tomatoes, and olives from the market and it was amazing! The kitchen was fully equipped which made it super easy for me to cook my own meals.
               Some challenges we faced in our new home was the whole ordeal of no dryer, and an old washing machine. The washing machine within our home was super old, so you had to be very careful with how you used it. So, the first day we used it, the water did not drain, and our clothes were soaked for days. What made this even more difficult was that it was raining for about five days straight so we could not put our clothes out on the lines, and we had no dryer. To solve this challenge, we had our landlord show us what we did wrong and eventually we were able to use it correctly. Another challenge faced in the home was the rooms being pretty warm. The first floor was very cool because of the cement floors and stairs, but the higher you got up, the hotter it got. We got fans from our landlord though, so it was a challenge fixed pretty quickly. Although we faced a few small challenges living in this home, the experience overall was very enjoyable.
               Although there were some challenges living in this home, there were many things I loved about living here. To start off, I loved having a nice kitchen and a variety of options within walking distance to get fresh foods. This made it easy for me to cook at home and make some nice dinners with my roommates. I really liked having my own room, as it was a place where I could get my schoolwork done. Although the house was a way outside of central Florence, I ended up loving being far away from the tourist areas. This made me feel like I was getting the actual Italian experience and living like a Florentine. I was also very pleased being right near a train station so we could travel on our free time, and I also loved being so close to a public market. I liked going to bars in the morning outside of the touristy areas, and seeing how locals act here. There was also leather markets and antique markets within walking distance to the home that were very nice. Overall, I loved my living situation, and I am so grateful I got the full experience living within the community with locals. I really am grateful I got to see the Florentine culture first-hand.
               Overall, my housing situation for Florence was amazing. Although my roommates and I had some challenges together, we tackled these obstacles together and made the most of our time. I am so grateful for the roommates I got and spending this experience with them. I could not have seen it going any better!