And the luggage difficulties continue. After an agonizingly long and stressful day with lengthy layovers and even longer flights, I touched down in the Florence airport to find that one of my suitcases was missing.
The program instructions said to pack one suitcase to take to the hotel, and the other suitcase would go into storage until we met our host families. So I thought I’d be smart and put all of my winter clothes and items I didn’t need in one suitcase, and the one I’d take to the hotel would carry all of my essentials. Bad idea. Of course, the one with everything I needed is the suitcase that got left behind.
At first I couldn’t understand how this could have happened: I checked both of my bags together, so how could they get separated? After talking to a program representative, I received my answer as well as some insight into the Italian psyche. The Florence airport has very short runways, and therefore the planes that fly in must be small and must weigh a certain amount. In order to cut down on the weight of the plane, some luggage is always left behind on purpose. Then they fly in the abandoned luggage on a later flight. There were five students besides myself who also had their luggage left behind, and the representative told me that one year 100 of the approximately 300 total students in the program had lost their luggage.
This solution to the problem is so different from one that would be made in the United States. Americans wouldn’t stand for an airline leaving behind luggage every time a plane takes off. It seems like either luggage restrictions would be enforced, or the runway would be lengthened. I’ve noticed this comparative lack of efficiency in other ways as well. This morning, for instance, it took almost an hour to load the students onto buses.
Of course, being without my luggage is not the way I hoped to start off this experience, but the excitement of being in Florence has more than made up for it. The city has winding cobblestone streets, gorgeous architecture and hills dotted with Cyprus trees. The green river Arno flows along the southern outskirts. Statues, churches and old stone archways seem to be around every corner, a constant reminder of the rich history of the area.
During the daytime, the weather has been scorching hot. With temperatures in the 90s, you start to sweat almost as soon as you step outside. The weather at night, however, has been wonderfully warm and breezy. The first night, even though we had been awake for over 30 hours and I was slightly delirious, I explored the city with my new group of friends from the program. We followed the river into the heart of the city with no goal in mind except to take in as much of our surroundings as possible.
We weren’t really paying attention to where we were going, and so when we turned a certain corner, what we saw stopped us in our tracks. Lit up, towering above us, was the Duomo. As cliché as it sounds, the sight was absolutely breathtaking. It was even more magnificent than I could have imagined. The entire surface of the marble is intricately carved, and sculptures fill every niche. At the entrance above the massive bronze doors, three pediments frame paintings of religious figures. We walked around the entire structure in awe.
I’m going back as soon as possible to view the Duomo in daylight and to make the journey up to the dome, but for now another matter will preoccupy me. While the last two days have been spent in a hotel with other students, this afternoon I will be meeting my host family and moving in. My first real taste of another culture awaits.
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