Buongiorno! Let’s pick up from where we left off on my last post. Here’s a little more insight into my time in Florence.

From the second I descended the plane in the Pisa airport, I was on survival mode to navigate my new environment. This was my first time visiting the county, and with not much knowledge of Italian, I didn’t have much to rely on. From the onset, an obstacle I faced was rooted in my own psyche. I was nervous to insert myself in environments where I was a non-native speaker. It wasn’t hard to tell that I was an American tourist, and I felt like any Italian utterance that I attempted to make would immediately not be received well. The obstacle in its essence was that I was already doubting myself before allowing myself to try. But, as time would do it, I slowly began becoming more and more acclimated to the routine of things. The feeling of not understanding 100% of what was being said around me didn’t paralyze me anymore. Even though I butchered much of the initial greetings and remarks I made, I was met by baristas, grocery store clerks, and school personnel who were gracious enough to correct my pronunciation and encourage me to keep trying. I quickly learned that the effort of me attempting to speak in a language non-native to me was appreciated far more than the actual product of my speech. And, with the three-day “Survival Italian” class I took, I felt more confident to insert myself in spaces in which I didn’t have command of the dominant language.

The simplistic ins and outs of my daily routine became something that provided structure and predictability to my sometimes chaotic schedule. I quickly found that making ample time to just sit down and eat a good breakfast was essential to the outcome of my day. In Pittsburgh, I am the champion for everything to-go. Coffee to-go from cafes. Eating a to-go protein bar on the walk to class and calling it breakfast. But my time in Florence really forced me to slow down, enjoy, and be mindful of the time I was setting aside to eat. I observed that Italians are not seen eating and drinking to-go food along their walking commutes. They prize their mealtimes as sacred spaces to fellowship with friends and family and cater to their own wellbeing. So, this time also became sacred to me. Walking along the Arno River to a café for breakfast gave me permission to stop trying to check-off items on my MUST-DO-IN-FLORENCE check-list and just observe and be grateful for the time I was spending abroad. This is certainly a practice I hope to uphold back at home. I hope to challenge myself to spend time simply existing instead of always doing and accomplishing.

Not every day afforded me the opportunity to have a slow start, however. Even in the midst of the most chaotic days, I experienced some of my favorite memories. One in particular stands out from all the rest. One early morning, my classmates and I made our way to the Florence Bilingual School to observe theories and practices surrounding multilingual instruction. Here, I saw firsthand how the teachers apply a split method to their practice. Half of the kindergarten received a full Italian immersive lesson while the other half was instructed by an English teacher. In the English-speaking classroom, the students were encouraged to speak in English but also allowed to speak in their native tongue. The teacher appeared to be both fluent in Italian and English, but only spoke to the kids in English for this specific day. There was such a surrounding aura of patience and understanding the teacher showed to her students even when they were having trouble remembering a word in English or pronounced it wrong. This is an attitude I hope to instill in my future classroom for any multilingual students I have the privilege of teaching. Witnessing firsthand how to create and cultivate a safe and responsive environment for budding English speakers inspired me to do the same in the classroom I lead one day. These are the same attitudes I experienced in the coffee bars, grocery stores, and at the schools I went to which encouraged me to keep daring to practice my Italian. There was such forgiving and encouraging sentiment in these spaces which were the catalysts for my speedy acclimation into Florence. Grazie mille a Firenze for welcoming me with open arms.

Ciao,

Victoria