Cioa Italia!

I have finally made it! And the trip here was long. It feels like every time I travel what can go wrong happens to me. NYC was a hot mess after our little tropical storm over the weekend, so I was late getting into the airport. And the airport was having its own issues with all the flights that got changed. However I did make it through even though I was not calm by the time I got to my gate. Once boarded I am saying final farewells before the no more cell phone phase starts, and the goodbyes lasted long then expected. I am pretty sure my mom got at least four, every time I thought we were leaving... and then we wouldn't. In the end we took off an hour and a half late. My connection in Rome was an hour and a half after the original landing time. Thankfully there were at least 20 other students on the connecting flight so the airline made sure we got on it. Both flights were pleasant. On the first flight I met a very pleasant Italian women who was in the process of moving from Rome to NYC with her fiance ( her wedding was that coming weekend!). She was so nice to me, using her Italian to ask the flight attendants about my connecting flight and even walking with me in the Rome air port to catch the flight. This is Rome, not that you can tell.
I land in Florence almost two hours late. Alitalia lost almost twenty people laugage, and some of these girls had four bags so I didn't exactly feel bad. So I wait in line and give them information to send it to my apartment (this ended up being wrong but that was a later issue). So I make it to my apartment at 3 pm and I could not get in. My keys do not look like US keys and it didn't help that I was on the wrong floor. The way the floor counting works here is that the floor that is on the street level is 0 then going up, but I didn't know that yet. Luckily my roommates were home and let me in.
So I am in my apartment and this long long day has just happened. The obvious next thing to do is to get Gelato! And let me tell you it was fantastic. Walking this city is one of my favorite things to do. There is so much charm and charisma. My next post will have more happy details I promise!