Monday, September 27, 2010

The people I have met in Florence

This morning I decided I would introduce you to a few of the people I have met here in Florence.
We have only now been meeting face to face, due to the fact that we arrived in Florence at holiday time and everyone goes away from the city.
The first person I met was Kimberly online through http://www.firenzemoms4moms.net/ . I was asking for information on what to do with the kids while in Florence and also information on life in Florence, because as you all know I want to move to Italy for at 1 year to experience life and culture somewhere else. Kimberly is from the USA and has been living in Italy for 7 years. I met Kimberly face to face the other night at a Moms Mingle dinner at a lovely restaurant on the Arno River http://www.lungarno23.it/. We have since arranged a dinner at Kimberlys house with her husband and 2 sons (the boys are excited to have other boys to play with). We are looking forward to seeing someone else's house in Florence in the San Frediano area.
The second person I met also online was Paola from http://www.florencetour.com/ . Paola is born and bred Italian and runs a tour company with her husband in Florence. I recommend using her tour company for more intimate tours of Florence (Paola has vans for tours and takes small groups). We also met face to face at the Moms Mingle dinner. We met eachother the next afternoon at the park near to both our houses, for our children to have a play. Allegra (Paolas 4 year old daughter) was afraid of the boys, she is so cute. Iain and I had a wonderful conversation with Paola about living in Florence and what our possible work options could be. Paola was very informative and very helpful.
And of course we met our neighbours that live in the top apartment in our building, Massimo, Annalisa, Irini(13 year old daughter) and Andrea(11 year old son). We have spent a little bit of time with them here in Florence and in Paris also. The day we met we found out we were all going to be in Paris at the same time, so we all spent the day at the Menagerie (zoo). On Saturday night we had the pleasure of having a dinner party at Massimo and Annalisa's with some of their friends. It was fun and we got to answer many questions about Australia and try to use as much Italian as we could (the friends did not speak English). We had wonderful pasta and a beautiful ragu that Massimo spent 3 hours cooking. It was an excellent experience, we really enjoyed it.
I also met Gabriella at the Moms Mingle, she runs a Bed and Breakfast in the centre of the Florence http://www.firenze-bedandbreakfast.it/ called Il Bargello. I have been told that it is a beautiful building with fantastic views from the terrace over the Duomo and the city.
We have met many people on our long holiday in Italy, some from Italy, UK, USA, France, Spain and of course Australians too.
Now we only have 2 1/2 weeks left here, we are heading to Asti next week to spend some time with our landlady Paola in her house with her husband Sergio. They are planning to take us to the mountains nearby. Paola has been collecting coats and shoes for us to wear in the mountains from her friends and family so that we don't have to purchase anything.

5 comments:

bubbachenille said...

Sounds like everyone is soooo friendly Marleena.

Anonymous said...

very friendly Miriam. I love it here.

Kirsty VI said...

I can't believe time's almost up. You have done so much and seen so many wonderful things...and now the locals too. Enjoy the last little bit and get excited about future plans by the sounds of it.

Kirsty VI said...

I can't believe time's almost up. You have done so much and seen so many wonderful things...and now the locals too. Enjoy the last little bit and get excited about future plans by the sounds of it.

Kellie Christie said...

It is fantastic that you have ben able to connect with so many friendly people and find out more about moving there too. It sounds very multi cultural.