Not that different.
As I walk to class, converse with the locals, use public transportation, and eat gelato I notice life in Florence is not dissimilar to what I am accustomed to in NYC. Both city centers are generally similar, not in the aesthetic sense, but nice calf muscles are the reward of dealing with everyday urban life for a lengthy extent of time anywhere.
Piazza Mercato Centrale is not a huge change from Third Avenue at 11th Street. I don’t know if I was awaiting a huge alteration, but I guess I underestimated the power of my beloved urban landscape. I guess even the laidback Tuscan lifestyle can be lost in chaotic city streets. The energy between the East Village and downtown Florence is comparable, though I feel the East Village stays alive longer. Both are inhabited by everyday individuals during the day, only to be replaced at night by bar crawling American college students. I hear every language spoken on the street, and see people of all walks of life when I close my door and step unto the piazza, but as I recall the same could be said of New York.
There are differences, yellow taxi cabs are now motorcycles and vespas, and the odd porn shop in the west village is the odd gelateria in Firenze. But again, they are aesthetic differences. The culture is not that different, perhaps it seems similar to me, as I’ve been brought up with Mexican culture just as much as my American one. But whatever doesn’t add up to my American standards makes sense when I turn on my Mexican side. I sometimes think Florence smells like Mexico (not like Juarez or Chihuahua, but real Mexico), and surely there are some visual similarities.
This might be why the transition to Florence has been so swift and without much consequence. All my past experiences have been adding up and preparing me for now.
Its not like I’m a suburbanite thrown into an urban jungle for the first time. I guess I was ready to come, and this was a gradual transition for me. So everyday life in Florence is not that different than being a New Yorker, but there is enough history, beauty and just enough of a cultural difference to make it all worthwhile.
Peace, Spice, and Adventure,
-Edgar
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