Night Owls and Vampires

Who knew I was such a night owl? My current life style is very "vampirish". It’s not a schedule I have ever kept in my life, but I am enjoying it now. The weather in Florence has been absolutely beautiful...no complaints there. It very rarely rains. There has been talk of a drought, so maybe it is raining less than usual this year. The sun always shines. The humidity is not to bad (20-40%-remember I am comparing with Nashville).

I walk to school in the mornings and it is cool-around 70 degrees at 8:30 a.m. It heats up pretty quickly, but there is almost always a breeze blowing. It has been 85-90 degrees at the hottest part of the day, and it drops to 65-70 in the evening.

While 85 or 90 is not too bad, with low humidity, when you are outside and walking everywhere, it can be draining. Add to that the hoards of people in the streets and sidewalks making my pedestrian road rage go berserk; there are good reasons to stay inside during the day.

When I get home from school at 1:00 p.m. I eat, blog, read email, do homework, and then I take a nap. This is the time of day when I might use my air conditioner, but it has been rare.

In the evening when the sun starts to go down, and there is a lot of shade in the narrow streets, I get ready to go out for la passiegata. This is usually around 6:30 p.m. The tourists are off the piazzas by now, showering and getting ready for dinner which for them is between 7-9, and for Italians between 8:30-10:30.

There are lots of live entertainment in the piazzas. There are opera singers, guitar players, jazz musicians, painters, mimes, poetry readings, skateboarding, and really just about anything you can think of. My routine is to visit the piazzas and talk with friends, then I go to the bridge to watch the sunset. After the sunset, I might have a bite to eat (this is around 9:30) and then back out to listen to music, walk, have coffee with friends, and enjoy the cool evening breezes until whatever time in the morning I decide I have had enough.

Usually, I don’t decide I have had enough, but that I must get some sleep in order to get up for school the next morning. I walk through the quiet streets at 1-2 a.m. usually alone, with no fear what so ever. Ahhhhhh, la dolce vita!

I am sure that you can see from the photos what the attraction is to the nighttime!