It was all about experience and stimulation: tastes, languages, smells, music, nature and so much art. Florence, the city itself is really livable and homely. We could map up the city basically in three days. We could walk almost everywhere in under twenty minutes. Hanna Dittrich‘s report about the FLAIR – adult education project in Florence.
The vibe of Florence is so effortless and cool. It contains so much history, yet doesn’t feel ancient, because of how alive it is. Who wouldn’t enjoy themself in an environment like this, right? This trip couldn’t be the same without our hosts. They were absolutely amazing, I think with them we could almost feel home there. They really tried to transform us to be a little more Italian for those days, in terms of traffic for example. For the last day, we slalomed between the cars with such perfection. With the locals on our side we could see a different, more raw side of the city, I think. We visited the Tobacco manufacture, the city park, the local market,a restaurant about a half an hour away from the city,so not the basic touristy sights. We peeked in just a bit, to see the local city development efforts or the problems. One main problem is that a lot of apartments are airbnbs and there is few real-estate for the locals at a reasonable price rate. I was surprised to learn that, especially, because we have similar problems in Budapest also. As in Budapest there were a lot of old buildings but all in a good condition. The city center has a little medieval feeling to it, because of the lot of stairs and narrow streets.
It made it easier to explore Florence, that we got a scavenger hunt with a lot of tasks to complete. It contained a lot of categories, so we didn’t just get to find the famous places, but to look for modern day arts, even in graffiti form or local mysteries. We got into a lot of funny situations, thanks to the game. The best one was when we needed to find a real fish and take a selfie with it. We asked about four families, who were fishing at the riverside, but none of them caught anything. Finally we spotted a bucket with a really small fish inside, so we went to explain the situation,which wasn’t easy, given that a lot of Italians don’t speak english. Finally we got our picture with the fish, and it’s a great one. Us girls all look so happy with the teeny-tiny fish.
Besides the treasure hunt, we did a little exploring ourselves also. We found a little café run by a lovely old gentleman, to whom we went back every day. His pastries were fenomenal, and he remembered our orders after the first day. When we left, the last morning, we even took a selfie with him. For me he embodied the casual elegance that we connect to the italians. Beside the café, we found a flea market also, which was full of goodies. I spent two hours looking through vinyls, jewelries,clothes, furniture and art pieces. We went to Florence as tourists at the end, so obviously we visited the Dome, and the Uffizi museum also, just as piazza de Michelangelo and the Medici chapel. These were amazing, but the Medici Chapel was outstanding for me, it took my breath away. It was so monumental, and beautifully designed. We threw ourselves into the night life also, and it was such a nice experience to see how the Italians spend their weekend evenings. It’s a social event basically, they buy a drink and then they go, sit on the streets, squares and socialize. They make new connections, talk and even dance. I had the feeling that they belong together, they create a community together, not just living next to each other. However they have problems also. We had some eye opening conversations with the Italians. They said they change their city leadership often, so neither of the parties can accomplish anything in the long run , because they don’t have time and they cancel each other’s plans. Another problem they mentioned is that they don’t really have a new culture. The younger generation is a bit frustrated, because they don’t see a lot of opportunities that are pointing towards the future. They nurture their ancient history and culture, but they don’t really make space for the modern one. This would’ve never occurred to me, if the locals didn’t tell us about it.
It was interesting to see how different nationalities see the same city, what do they notice. For example, the Macedonians noticed that the streets are so clean. We found it interesting that the old buildings are taken care of. I think the Italian guys could also see their city a bit differently also through our eyes. It was a beautiful visit, and not at all enough, just a taste.
