Benvenuto in Italia

So the idea for this blog was to document my Year Abroad. However, I have been living in Italy now for over two months and am yet to post (until now, obviously) so it's all going to be a little jumbled to begin with. Luckily though, I was asked to write an article about my Italian experiences for a friend's fashion-travel magazine, Suitcase, in my first couple of weeks of my arrival here so I have a ready-made first post!

Here goes...

When I started my degree in Spanish and Italian, I always knew the year abroad was part of the course, but it was just one of those things I put to the back of my mind and never really accepted would happen. All too soon I had finished my second year exams and was having to organise leaving parties and think about what to pack for three months living in Florence. Having decided that my last night in London was better spent out with friends than packing for a 8am flight, I hastily chucked some clothes into my case and I’ve ended up out in Italy with more stuff than I’ll ever need after managing to wangle my way through check-in with suitcases 9kg over the weight limit.

So far, my year abroad is not exactly what I would call ‘being thrown in at the deep end’ as I’m currently staying with my cousins in their beautiful Tuscan villa spending my days by the pool, riding their horses or popping in and out of coffee bars and eating ice cream with my aunt. I have to say I’m quickly warming to the Italian way of life; the average day starts in the bar for a relaxed cappuccino and a chat with various friends, and for the kids, school finishes at lunch time almost every day so the afternoon is free for as much sunbathing or gelato eating as one can handle. I fear this is all about to come to an abrupt end however as I am moving into Florence in three days’ time to live with a some family friends of my aunt’s. As for this new family, their five children vary in age from 13 to 25 so there will always be someone to talk to and the parents are lovely (I’ve had lots of email contact with the mother) but the talking is actually what I’m worried about! Having studied Italian since the start of University, one might think that I would be pretty good at it… that would be wrong. We only have one hour a week of speaking lessons so while I can read and write pretty competently in Italian, I can never seem to find the words I want to say when put on the spot in a conversation. I don’t think my email conversations with the mother will have helped me either as it is a lot easier to sit down and write an email when you have half an hour to spare and can translate every word if necessary (thank God for wordreference.com!) but a real-life conversation is a different thing altogether and I think they might be wildly over-estimating my abilities!

Then there’s the problem of my job, or lack thereof. I turned down the offer of a university place in Rome in favour of a romantic notion of being in Florence and finding a fun-filled and interesting job, but such a thing has yet to appear! My aunt is on the case, having put the word out to friends and has apparently got a few leads although, unhelpfully, all Italians seem to disappear on holiday for the whole summer so not much progress has been made.

However, I am hugely looking forward to living in Florence, a place I’ve only ever spent a few days in before. I have to say I’m already in love with the city, the buildings are of course beautiful, as are the people, who all seem to have that Italian ability to look glamorous whatever they’re doing – even the bus drivers and bin ladies look unbelievably polished, and the Carabinieri, while they have been known to complain that they don’t get the same respect as the British police do, don’t really mind because, as they rightly point out, they have the best uniform in Europe. I am worried about my lack of job, but I am also quite grateful to have a bit of spare time to enjoy and explore the city – I have already spotted an exhibition that I’m dying to see called ‘Money and Beauty: Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities’ at the Palazzo Strozzi, and all year Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist has been uploading photos of gorgeous Florentines so I’m happy to wile away my job-free hours in coffee shops people-watching. Maybe if I mooch around enough I may just stumble upon someone willing to offer me my elusive dream job. I’ll report back in the second and third instalments of my year abroad tales, hopefully with lots of stories to tell of my fabulous Italian life, à la Juliet Roberts’ Roman adventures in Eat Pray Love – keep your fingers crossed!