Greg Fisher

Florence, Italy

So you wanna hear about Florence. Geez, where do I even start? Well let’s just say that Firenze is something else.

The people, the culture, even the way they [Italians] think is different. It is much more relaxed—that is, if you’re not in the way of a taxi, a bicycle, or a vespa. It’s been a little over a week since I’ve moved in and I haven’t had too much trouble adjusting.

People are musical, and after being around a foreign language (that I had only known one word of) for just a week, I’m amazed at how much I’ve already learned.

Getting around is the hardest part. The cobblestone streets lead to other cobblestone streets, and if you follow the same cobblestone street for a few blocks the street name will change without you even noticing. Before you know it, you don’t know where the hell you are.

So then you have to look up and see the architectural masterpiece built by Brunelleschi during the Renaissance, and head towards the Duomo. It is the exact center of this city. It’s not that big of city, which is nice. But the sidewalks and streets are so skinny, New Yorkers would throw a fit, and if you had a pickup truck or an Escalade, or even a Jeep you’d be running over practically everything without even noticing. The biggest vehicles are busses and ambulances, and even then they’re half the size they are in America. But it all makes sense, at least environmentally.

Contributed Photo: KSC junior Greg Fisher gazes over Piazza Michelangelo with a view of the Duomo in Florence, Italy. Fisher is studying in Florence this spring 2014 semester. Fisher commented on the various cultures that exist in his classes and how this opportunity has expanded his, “mind and soul.”

I have found that the beauty of the history and art here is exemplified in everything, even the smallest nightclubs.

Last night I was at a small music venue called “Be Bop,” and an Italian band was playing American rock-and-roll. I felt right at home—in fact, I pulled out my harmonica and got invited up on stage for a Muddy Waters’ tune, which was a blast.

My roommate, who is an excellent violinist found a violin and cello workshop that’s been handed down since the 1930s, and the brothers who owned it welcome us musicians in and let my roommate rent one of their violins. You can buy them for about £1700, but he was offered a deal for £30 a month.

The food is the best part. It seems like it’s against the law to have any ingredients older than week here, so everything is so fresh.

You can walk down the street and be drowned with the stench of pure leather and walk right up to the open market that was built in 1816 with the cheapest, freshest food I’ve ever drooled over. Certainly, the wine is something else, but the restaurants have such great deals. Buy a drink and have an all-you-can-eat buffet, or pay £15 and have an antipasto (appetizer) and three-course pasta meal with unlimited wine. My time thus far has been pretty wild meeting people from all over America, all over Italy and all over the world.

My classes are filled with students from Turkey, Mexico, Panama, Holland and Germany. It’s really incredible mixing in with young people just like me, and when I talk to them they obviously grew up in different cultures—but they’re not too different than most Americans.

The thing I found is that around the world, people think Americans are babied and pampered and get what they want—and what they see is true, but not all of us are like that.

It seems like they’re too quick to judge because they’re used to just one type of culture, while in America we’re used to a mix of culture and a mix of race. Depending on when and where you grow up, you never really know what you’re going to get. I had a really interesting talk about that with my roommates.

After the violin workshop, (where the brothers explained the struggle of the Italian economy and how they’re not far behind Greece), we thought that maybe it was because people here just live. Their philosophy is to enjoy life, food and family.

In America we work to live, or to survive; things are moving so fast and standards are so high in America, you kind of just get run over. That’s why there may be such an imbalance in power and wealth.

Here, there are no Italian celebrities, nobody is better than the other, and everyone is pretty content with who  they are because they have their food, wine, family and good times. It’s this kind of philosophy that has captured me most about this place.

It’s lovely, and beautiful and I can’t wait to spend the next three months here. I’ve learned so much in seven days.

This opportunity has already given me what I came here for—an expansion of my mind and soul. I’m so fortunate, and it’s mighty fine to be alive.

I’ve been sleeping in 14-hour increments and staying up for two days straight, and slowly getting back to a healthy routine. The quick espresso shots help, there is no slow drip coffee, and certainly no Styrofoam coffee cups either. Everything is glass. There’s no peanut butter, but a whole lot of Nutella which I am okay with. The bakeries at night open up their back door for £1 pastries and man oh man, they’re so fresh. I’m already missing it three months from now.

Grazie! Ciao!