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August 28, 2022
Ciao from Firenze! It's been a crazy few days, from the thirty-two hour travel day it took to get here, the incessant jet lag, moving into my new apartment, carrying my fifty pound suitcase up six flights of stairs, etc. Regardless, this week has been amazing. I successfully moved to Italy! It's been a week of excitement, stress, anxiety, and all around a wonderful sense of craziness. There is so much I want to tell you about my first week in Florence, but I think I need to start with my first epic fail. Pictured below is a photo of my roommate, Morgan, and I hysterically laughing at the end of a crazy day. Allow me to explain . . .
Saturday morning, excitement was in the air. My roommates (Morgan, Sasha Shelby) and I were itching to go on an adventure. So, we packed our backpacks with a night's worth of supplies. Nothing crazy, a swimsuit, a change of clothes, perhaps a toothbrush. And we made our way to Firenze Santa Maria Novella, the train station in Florence. It was a hefty walk, but we didn't mind, we simply couldn't wait to see what another Italian city had to offer us. Despite the many options of cities we could visit, we resolved to head west towards the city of Lucca. Our plan was to spend all of Saturday exploring Lucca, stop by the Leaning Tower of Pisa on Sunday, and swiftly make it back home by Sunday night in time for class on Monday morning. All was going as planned, until, well, nothing at all went as planned.
Ignoring the blistering heat, we began our walk to the Florence train station. We made our way inside, standing in several of the wrong lines, before a kind American tourist finally pointed us in the right direction to purchase tickets. We found the self-purchase booth, and purchased four one way tickets to Lucca. The only problem was, we couldn't figure out which platform was associated with our train ride. After several minutes of a shared prideful urge to figure it out on our own, we finally asked someone for help. An employee begrudgingly told us to make our way to Platform 2, and warned us of the train's stop in the city of Pisa (this is important, though we didn't realize it at the time). We finally boarded our train, silently giggling at how silly the last minute travelers looked running to make their trains (oh, if we only knew what the rest of the day had in store for us).
All was going swimmingly. The train ride was beautiful. The stop in Pisa came and went. With about ten minutes left in our ride, we decided to check google maps, only to find we were moving AWAY from our final destination of Lucca. Like, in the complete opposite direction. This is when we finally digested what the train station employee was trying to tell us (and likely knew we wouldn't understand). WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET OFF AT PISA. We should have transferred to another train to take us to Lucca. Instead, we drifted south, towards the city of Livorno. Morgan, Shelby, Sasha, and I shrugged our shoulders and thought, hey! What's the worst that could happen? Let's spend the day exploring Livorno!
So, we got off the train in Livorno, with slightly withered confidence but still excitement, and made our way to the bus stop. Here's where things got tricky. You see, it should be easy to figure out which bus to take, but unfortunately, none of us speak Italian. "Ciao,"" "buongiorno," and "grazie" aren't exactly helpful when trying to navigate a bus map. After about twenty minutes of confusion and nearly giving up to call a taxi (which is even harder by the way, more on that later) we finally figured out that the LAM blu bus route would take us to the center of Livorno for lunch. So, we hopped on the bus and chit chatted about our remaining excitement, vaguely making plans for the day. Our stop came, and all of us scurried off the bus . . . or at least we thought it was all of us. I stepped off the bus, turned around, and realized we were missing someone. MORGAN WAS STILL ON THE BUS. What great friends we are! We left AN ENTIRE PERSON on the bus. I later learned that she stayed on to validate our tickets (she's the best). I called her in a panic, seeing as I just lost my roommate in a foreign country and a new city where absolutely nobody speaks English. Luckily, Morgan answered with nothing but calm energy and understanding, and told us to meet her at the next bus stop.
Finally reunited and with the intention of having a beach day, we decided to stop by a cute swimwear shop to grab Sasha a new suit. All was going as planned, until we realized that Livorno is a port city, and the closest beach was several hours away by car, which we didn't have, obviously. Not to worry! We're flexible, right? So, we decided to simply walk towards the marina and see what else Livorno had to offer. This is when the hunger set in. It was already past three and we were still running on the tiny breakfasts we grabbed at the coffee shop by our apartment. Fearing motion sickness on the train, I could only stomach a few measly chips, so you can imagine how hungry I was by this point. After wandering the marina for about ten minutes and coming across several restaurants that did not open until late evening (another Italian culture shock worth noting), we finally resigned at a little burger place by the water. Eating here was the best decision we made all day. I ordered the "Betty Burger," a well-done traditional hamburger with spicy mustard sauce and fried chips stuffed inside. And, oh. my. god. It was the best hamburger I've had in my entire life. I still don't know if my joy was driven by hunger, exhaustion, or truly good food in front of me, but I was doing a happy dance in my seat.
Over lunch, we discussed what our options were. We realized that Livorno is not a touristy area, or rather the part that we were in was very local. So, there was only one hostel available. After doing some research, we decided it was too expensive for hostel living, and had about 42 negative reviews too many. Yikes.
Hoping to find at least one fun thing to do in this new city, we browsed our maps and searched for anything appealing. By the luck of the draw, we spotted the Livorno Aquarium. Perfect!
We paid for our lunch and called a taxi company . . . which unfortunately didn't speak English.
No problem! Let's just call another company.
Also no English.
One more?
Yeah okay, nobody in this city speaks English.
Every cab company hung up on us.
We spent almost an hour calling cab companies, begging locals to answer our questions, all to no avail. Livorno simply is nothing like New York. Ah, the simple American life where you can raise your hand and a taxi appears before you like magic. In the end, we gave up, deciding to cut our losses, and bought our train tickets home. The last train home was scheduled for seven o'clock, giving us about an hour to wander and enjoy the time we had left. Sasha and Shelby ventured into some clothing stores to explore, while Morgan and I enjoyed some coffee and chatted. All's well that ends well. Oh wait . . .
An hour passed by and we realized what a time crunch we were in. We hopped on the nearest LAM rosa bus and felt some relief wash over us as we made our way back to the train station. About twenty minutes of distracted chit chatting went by before I realized, wait a minute, aren't we supposed to be on the LAM blu bus? In a panic, we all hopped off the bus, pulled out our maps, and frantically checked to see what random location we'd been dropped in. It was at this moment that we realized that the LAM rosa bus was in fact headed toward the train station, and we should NOT have gotten off. Oh well, looks like we're sprinting the last ten minutes.
At the train station we rushed to validate our tickets, only to learn that digital tickets didn't need validation. Sasha and Shelby went straight to our platform, but Morgan and I went looking for a bathroom. With only about ten minutes left, we raced to the nearest one, and realized we needed to pay to enter. With a full bladder and no cash in my pocket, I was near hysterics at this point. Thankfully, there was a kind French lady behind us who offered us the change. I don't know her name or where she came from, but if ever our paths cross again, I'll be sure to thank her for her generosity! The clock was ticking and Morgan and I sprinted to Platform 3. The only problem was, we needed Platform 2. We ran back the other way, and were flooded with relief to see our train was still there. We waited patiently for the doors to open. The clock was ticking and seven o'clock was nearing. Others were boarding, but not us. We got anxious. Suddenly, a stroke of genius hit Shelby and she noticed a small green button just to the left of the door. She took a chance and struck it, and voilà! The door opened. We sat down and realized that had we not pressed that tiny green behemoth of a button, our train would have left without us, taunting our exhausted little bodies as we chased it down the tracks, watching it drift into the sunset towards Florence. Luckily, we were able to sit and laugh at the thought, as we enjoyed the ride home.
I am happy to report that the remainder of our evening was nothing but pleasant. I listened to music that reminded me of home, watched the sunset, and reminisced on the adventure we'd just shared. We cackled over our silly mistakes, culture shocks, and various other anecdotes over the most delicious margherita pizza (called pizza margherita here, oops) I've ever eaten. Back at the apartment, Morgan and I stayed up until two in the morning watching our comfort movie, Mamma Mia!, singing along, and laughing at the early 2000s picture. So yeah, needless to say, my first big Italian adventure didn't exactly go as planned. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I made memories, immersed myself in a new culture, and built bonds with my amazing new friends. And isn't that what I had always dreamt of anyway?
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