Vorrei un cappuccino

I'm not sure where to start. Italy is much as I pictured it and had seen from art and photographs... warm color painted architecture, tall skinny pines, rolling hills, lots of orchards, cobble stone streets, and plenty of pasta and pizza joints. My flights were good. I went from Little Rock to Atlanta. From there to Paris. And then actually rode a plane from Paris to Florence by myself! (<<I'm pretty proud of myself). Finding your way through an airport filled with people who mostly don't speak your language isn't hard... but very weird feeling and a bit scary. Anywaaaay, because my flight left 2 hours before the rest of the group I was welcomed at the Airport by Kyle and taken to the Villa before everyone else. I was completely overwhelmed.
Today the reality that we are actually in Italy sunk in a bit more because of the trip we made to town. After orientation type of business for most of the morning we had lunch, took some pictures, and then walked to town. The ladies that cook for us make wonderful pasta and meal times have such a family type atmosphere... I like it all a lot. Mona gave us our first Italian lesson and we learned how to say "I would like a cappuccino". Later in the afternoon we were able to practice our skills by asking for one at Caffe Mario on the Scandicci square. Robbie gave us a tour of Scandicci and after that we walked around shops and an open market that is around on Saturday's only. We had dinner at La Bottega Del Panino. We all had these delicious grilled wraps! While there we encountered a group of young Italians. They were interesting and fun... I'm not sure how else to describe them. They thought they were the bees knees and like the rest of Italy were dressed in mostly black or dark colors and had unique hair cuts. Robbie told me the Italians take much pride in their style of dress and hairstyles. One plugged his ipod into the stereo system and was playing classic rock music for us... and then even introduced us to some screamo Lady Gaga. Once we returned to the Villa we had a little party where we played games and got to know each other better. I look forward to deepening those relationships more as we experience this beautiful country together! God is so wonderful and I know he'll be using these people and this country to teach me much in the next 2 1/2 months.