‘Newly anointed Florentines’ plunge into city’s culture

FLORENCE, Italy – Only three weeks into our adventure in Florence, we already feel as if we have nothing to do with those “other” tourists.

We, as expatriate, refugee students, immersed in our Renaissance culture, are something else entirely. We push past hordes of visitors with their wide-angle lenses and radio headsets tuned into the voices of their tour leaders, because we have things to do. Lunch, shopping and the ATM are all to be had between classes daily.

The pulse of this city, this culture, is becoming second nature. We react to sights and sounds as if they were our own. We find ourselves unsurprised by the little things anymore.

Restaurants, conversations, train stations and medieval church etiquette are trivial at this point. The sunsets begin to leave us unfazed, but they are magical nonetheless.

Seeing the waning light on the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, distant Tuscan mountains, and the Ponte Vecchio – the only bridge spared by German bombs during World War II – reminds us that many shadows have been cast on these places, and we are witnessing only a very few of them. But we are privileged still.

The sheer amount of this art and architecture we are exposed to, and the history behind it, forces our foreign eyes to take a closer look. Every painting and sculpture in this rich city has meaning, investment and powerful motivation. It all comes to bear, coming to form a very real part of the city that was built around its financial and cultural wealth.

Easily ignored as newly anointed Florentines, now we are finally hearing the buzzing of political and civic life. Firenze and Toscana are about to have elections in June, and this has brought loud, confusing rallies for various figures daily.

Political discourse has even reached the point of bringing the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, to our streets. IU students spotted him outside Louis Vuitton with full police escort to protect him from throngs of admirers.

Noticeably, our hotel’s proprietor, Erminio, in his hilarious paranoia, even goes so far as to spell the French president’s name “Sarkozy” in his Wi-Fi password – just in case the European Union is checking up on him.

Other symbols of Italian promotion are also to be seen: the newly released film “Angels & Demons” could not be advertised or exploited more heavily than it is here in its home setting. Seeing the movie in Italian dubbing, with expert Tom Hanks impersonation, only makes the experience more validated for some reason.

Everyone who hails from Bloomington molds to our temporary home in each person’s own way. Mostly, having camaraderie close at hand makes this place feel like a displaced version of our beloved IU – just without the Sample Gates or Indiana Memorial Union.

Some small measure of solitude can be found simply by listening. If we only stop to listen to the noise and the music alike, humming up from the streets to meet us on the terrace at each night, we can hear more than just our own conversations. We can start to hear the life behind the veil of thousands of years of history.

We can begin to truly understand this place, without it becoming just another vacation for our scrapbooks.