Italian adventure starts
The adventure begins.
I was at a conference at Duke, and left the meeting at about 10:00 on Tuesday to catch my flight from Raleigh to JFK. The connection was good and after a very long walk from the gate to collect my bag, I rode the Airtran around to the other side of JFK to catch my flight on KLM. Checking in was no problem, and I got through to the boarding area around 4:00 for my 6:10 flight.
The flight was nice, although the food is definitely better on Air France. Not too bumpy, and we had a big tailwind and landed 45 minutes early in Amsterdam. Cut down on the sleep time.
Amsterdam is a very nice modern airport, very easy to get around in. I think I went through EU customs there, but all they did was stamp my passport - no questions or anything.
The flight from Amsterdam to Rome was on time and pretty comfortable, although I was over the wing and did not get to see much. I slept a little more and landed in Rome about about noon. The plane parked out in the middle of nowhere and they loaded us on buses and drove us back to the terminal where we waited for our luggage to be driven all the way in. Bag was fine, and I was ready for the next part of the trip.
The airport has a train station with a direct train into the main train station in Rome. Got a ticket and got on and it was a pretty easy ride. Then went to the ticket office in Roma Termini and got the next Eurostar train to Florence. Left Rome at 2:10 and got to Santa Maria Novella at 3:45, where Stacy (from Palazzo Rucellai) was waiting for me.
She offered a taxi ride, but the walk to our apartment was not that long, so she pulled my carry on bag and we walked over. Nice three bedroom apartment, with a great location.
Pictures of the apartment There are captions to each picture (I figured out how to do that easily -- next time I will try sorting the pictures a little better). You enter down a few stairs into a foyer. Then there are the bathroom and half-bath at the beginning of a hallway that looks over the courtyard. The first bedroom (the guest bedroom) is at the beginning of the hallway. At the end is the living room. To the right of the living room is another bedroom (Alli's) and the the left is the master bedroom (I got here first, so I get to pick). There is a terrace (small) that runs outside the living room and master bedroom with nice floor to ceiling french doors. At the far end of the living room is a small hallway that leads to the kitchen. It has a table in it, but is small, so most eating will be done (I think) in the living room. The washing machine is in the kitchen.
I took clothes out and hung them up and then walked over to the school and got there about 5:00. Saw everyone and talked a bit. They all look great and it will be fun working with them again.
I walked around Florence a little, then went back to the apartment and put on a soccer match and rested on the couch for a while. Then a little more walking around, a pizza for dinner on Piazza della Republica, and then I went back to the apartment and went to bed. This apartment is much quieter than ours was last year, and I got a great night's sleep. I'm a little jetlagged today, but so far I'm doing okay.
I'm going to walk to the train station and meet the Penn State students today, and then meet everyone tomorrow at the orientation. It is a little lonely in the big apartment with no one there, but the crowds will start arriving soon.
Ciao!
