Via Maurizio Bufalini

I have arrived! Since I last wrote a lot has happened. Some good, some bad. But, and this is the most important thing - ultimately good. Because I now have a place to stay! As you can see from the title it is on a street called Via Maurizio Bufalini. Pretty ideally placed as it is both incredibly central and also close to the University etc so that's a big bonus.

I cannot begin to describe quite how stressful some moments have been when searching for a flat. 

Lets start at the very beginning. 

I flew out to Pisa with Nige (my Dad) on Wednesday morning. Immediately I was appointed team leader since according to Nige, and I quote, 'I have never been to Florence and I cannot speak a word of Italian.' He was certainly right about the latter. Nige constantly tried to order 'dos', two, of everything and simply replied with 'okay' whenever some poor person said 'Ciao', 'Buona giornata' or 'Buonasera'. Aaannd. Much to my annoyance Nige consistently could not get the name right for the Duomo. The huge cathedral in Florence which is just a stone's throw from my flat. Instead the name was substituted for any other word beginning with D, like 'Domingo', 'Domino', 'Dominio' and so on. Nige on tour below.

I could go on about dear Dad, like how he nearly didn't even get on the flight because of a lost boarding card (looks at me: 'Where is it Ollie? Me: 'How the hell am I supposed to know!?) But I shall not. In the end it was great to have him out here with me and the poor guy must be the first ever person to have gone to Florence for 2 nights and not seen or done any sort of cultural activity. 

So I eventually managed to get a place to live. After about 40 odd phone calls made to these various Italians, most of whom were adamant that it was a girl's room only, ('I assure you I really am a great guy!'), didn't seem to work, or that the room unfortunately was now occupied. However, Filippo and the gang have let me become their newest member of the family. I am living with 4 others. Filippo, who is head of house ad general leader, (Il Capitano), Catriona, who funnily enough is from Scotland, small small world, and she is basically fluent in Italian which is great, Elisa, from Finland who also speaks good Italian and finally Sitara.  

In other news I have become a daily 'reader' of the publication 'La Gazzetta dello Sport', it doesn't beat 'The Game' on a Monday, but still....

And to fully integrate myself I am sure it is only a matter of time before I start shouting 'Ciao Bella' out of my bedroom window.