And the winner is ... Florence!

Ciao one and all! I am sorry to those of you who keep asking for more entries, but at the moment I am too busy doing two things:
- fawning over the Italian dreamboat in my hotel, who I am NEVER going to get
- learning to parlo Italiano

Greetings from Firenze. I arrived last Sunday and, though I realise this is starting to sound just a little hollow in its sincerity (after saying it about EVERYWHERE!), I absolutely, positively am over the moon about Florence, or Firenze. It is my favourite place in Europe, and has given me the best 4 days, of any I have had so far, hands down. Of course, this comes as very little surprise. I've been to Firenze before, and had anticipated spending two, maybe three weeks here.

I am now signed on for five!

In fact, I am basically spending the rest of my trip here - with weekends to the other cities of northern Italy - right here. And I wish I could spend the rest of the year! (A quick stop over in Britain is still on the cards too. Very quick!)

I haven't quite always felt this way. My first day at Italian language school was a fair disaster, in which I learned that Katie is not always as intelligent as she thinks she is. It was a fair punch to the ego - I don't have a lot of confidence in many of my abilities save my brain, so when it failed me too I just wanted to kiss my money good by and get the hell out of here! But then I went out and had dinner near the Duomo, some gelati, bought a pair of jeans (shopping IS very therapeutic, you know) followed by some drinks at a bar near the school. And then some more drinks with my class mates, and before I knew it, it was Thursday - it is Thursday! - and I was hooked.

And a tiny little bit smarter. Io posso parlare in Italiano perche faccio studiare.
I'm still learning prepositions and such, but that should pretty much translate! I had a great time yesterday texting people with their own private messages in Italian. I did fuck them up - va instead of fa, the wrong prepositions. But I can actually have little conversations in Italian now!!!

Yesterday I woke with a cold, and buoyed on by successes in class - my teacher informed the whole class that I was far less inept than I had been. Thanks. Really not embarrassing at all - I decided to go into the Farmacia and tell the pharamcist what was wrong with me and what I needed in my pigeon Italian. It worked - he understood perfectly! Too well, perhaps: before I knew it, he was banging on in quick Italian about how to take the 'pseudoefadrina' and I didn't understand a scientific word, except that I could have two tablets four hourly.

Umm. Isn't that what he said? I really did think so! So, I had 4 in the six hours before bed. 8 hours later, it was time to get up, and I hadn't slept a wink!!! Oh my GOD! As wired as anything, I spent the entire night studying - more texts, emails; 'fun' studying! - and feeling pretty proud of myself because I thought I was going to blow everyone away after my outstanding night of practice.

When I almost fell asleep at the table, teacher was not happy. He thought, I could tell, I was a moron for taking four pseudoefadrina in six hours, and that I must have had brain damage. He was molto arrabbiatto.

And then I made a fool of myself at the hotel in front of Italian Dream Boat!

Shame. Our bilingual children would have been stunning, taking after him, and taking after me they would have been ... short!

But, in all seriousness, I find myself far more relaxed and at peace than I have been these past few weeks. Florence is just too beautiful, and I am having a great time: my palazzio is fantastically fifteenth century Italian, and the other students at my school are a lot of fun. And I am learning!!!! Slowly. Sort of. Yay!

By the by, I can actually read Italian better than I can hear it. So when I read the instructions of the packet of tablets just a few moments ago, it was, in fact, one tablet four hourly. How I got una and due mixed up, I'll never know. I'm just lucky I didn't hear otto or something!!

Next post: the elopement. Ha ha ha.

He might want a visa?