My girlfriend Sheryl arrived from San Diego a few hours after I arrived back in Florence from Sorrento, and before I could even unpack, we headed to dinner at Semolina in Santa Croce, had a gelato at Vivoli and then took a walk through Piazza Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio. Sheryl recently obtained her dual Italian citizenship too! We became good friends 2 years ago, when I met her in an Italian language class at the Italian Cultural Center in San Diego. Sheryl's family is from Naples too.....so we share a common passion, a common connection with Naples, and the Campania region of Italy.
Sheryl and I had a great time catching up with each other since she arrived on Saturday night for a 2 day stay with me. We spent most of our time together re-visiting the usual celebrated art galleries, churches and monuments of Florence. Our time together passed quickly, and Sheryl departed for Rome tonight, and her final destination, Sorrento, where she will be studying and spending time with her family in Naples.
Just like New York City, you could live here forever and never be able to absorb even an iota of what this magnificent city has to offer. With an agenda of friends and family visiting me from the U.S., I have tended to wait for them to come, in order to enjoy Florence's art together, because it is so much more interesting to share the perceptions and reactions of the experience from a new point of view. There is so much to learn.
Life feels more infinite here for me in Florence than it has ever felt, anywhere that I have lived before.
In the past 2 weeks, Florence has become so flooded with tourists, that it is hard to ride my city bike in the streets. It is a little annoying, but it's not fair for me to think this way. I know how it feels to be in their shoes. I'm learning to get all my outdoor chores done early in the morning, at lunch hour and after 6:30pm, when they're sleeping and eating.
