Dear Friends,
Yesterday a group of students of an American University who has been studying in Florence for three months had a very interesting meeting at the Gabinetto Vieusseux (www.vieusseux.fi.it) in Palazzo Strozzi.
The meeting was entitled Firenze Immaginata, Firenze Vissuta and they had to talk about the difference between how they had imagined Florence before coming here and how it is in reality after a three months’ stay?
The guys have kept talking for almost two hours and their comments and opinions were very impressive!
Here are some of their considerations about the argument:
“…Which is the element that makes you feel part of Florence? Is it visiting the museums or eating the Bistecca alla Fiorentina in a very expensive restaurant? I don’t think so. I think that when you start living in a place, and you also start working, you start taking part to the daily routine of that place, so you are not a tourist anymore and you don’t behave as you still were it. So, life in Florence is not only going to the museums or doing something special, but it’s also study, work and routine…”
“…Since I live in Florence, I noticed that life is very expensive! One of the main means of livelihood for Florence is tourism, and of course also fashion and luxury, but this is often an outward way of living, because actually many families have financial difficulties and living here is quite hard…”
“…I noticed that there is a strong sense of solidarity between the families of the block of flats where I live. I think that Italian people in general have a great sense of community and neighborhood, and this is different from America, where people live on their own without having any contact with their neighbor…!”
“What I expected to find and what I actually found:
-
The social aspect of Italians: they are very open and dramatic people above all when they discuss something
-
The food culture: for Italian people living is eating, but in the sense that to them the eating time is a time to spend together, a time to share opinions, feelings, etc.
-
The sense of belonging to a place
I also learnt one thing from this experience: imagination is something that you can’t have if you don’t have real life.”
“…Before coming to Florence I had the common stereotypes that everyone has about Italians: pizza, football, mandolino. This is what I imagined, actually I learnt that reality is often very different from imagination. Florence is in fact a very cosmopolitan place where different people from different cultures leave together every day with all the difficulties that come from a similar situation…”
“…How the Florentine people do behave with foreign people? Do they accept the fact that their city is full of foreign people? What do they think about the foreign tourists?…Sometimes it seems to me that they have an attitude to separation from other people…”
“…I am from Angola and I have been living in Florence for 8 years. My idea of Florence has changed a lot during these years. Before coming here I thought that all Italian people were Catholic, but then I suddenly realized that it was an old idea. In fact, I usually go to Mass while my Italian friends meet me later outside the church…”
“…Living in Florence gave me the sensation of being independent and self-governing. When I arrived here I suddenly felt that I could walk around the city without losing myself and in an autonomous way. Florence transmits a sense of safety and independence…”
“…Every place in the World is different from all the others and it’s unique, and every place communicates something different and peculiar…”
“…To deepen your own knowledge of a place you need to feel the spirit of that place and immerse yourself in the local customs and culture…”
“..To get in contact with a place you need time and patience, you need to be curious and investigating, you need to listen to that place…”
“…To understand a city you can observe people in their daily actions, such as waiting for a bus, going to work, etc…”.
These are just some of the ideas that came out yesterday during this meeting and we would be very happy if these guys wrote other comments on our blog!!!
The IMAGINATION/REALITY theme is very important to understand many things on people and places and to realize how easy it is to generate stereotypes in general.
How can we avoid to be superficial in our judgements?…
Think about it!
Lbt
LIFE BEYOND TOURISM BLOG
American students talk about Florence
Tags: accept, america, american, argument, attitude, autonomous way, avoid, behave, belong, bistecca alla fiorentina, blog, catholic, changed, city, comments, common, communicate, community, considerations, cosmopolitan, curious, daily actions, daily routine, deepen, difference, different cultures, different people, difficulties, discuss, dramatic, easy, eating, element, everyone, expect, expensive, experience, families, fashion, feel, feelings, financial difficulties, find, Firenze immaginata Firenze vissuta, Florence, florentine, food culture, football, foreign, friends, full, Gabinetto Vieusseux, generate, get in contact, group, guys, happy, idea, imagination, imagined, immerse yourself, important, impressive, independence, independent, interesting, investigating, italian people, italians, judgements, knowledge, learn, life, listen, living, local culture, local customs, losing myself, luxury, mandolino, mean of livelihood, meet, meeting, meeting people, museums, need, neighborhood, observe, open, opinions, Palazzo Strozzi, part, patience, peculiar, pizza, place, real life, reality, realize, restaurant, safety, self-governing, sensation, sense, separation, share, social aspect, solidarity, special, spend, spirit of place, start, stay, stereotype, students, study, studying, superficial, take part, talk about, theme, things, think about, time, together, Tourism, tourist, transmit, unique, university, visiting, walk around, way of living, work, working, world, years
Dear Friends,
Yesterday a group of students of an American University who has been studying in Florence for three months had a very interesting meeting at the Gabinetto Vieusseux (www.vieusseux.fi.it) in Palazzo Strozzi.
The meeting was entitled Firenze Immaginata, Firenze Vissuta and they had to talk about the difference between how they had imagined Florence before coming here and how it is in reality after a three months’ stay?
The guys have kept talking for almost two hours and their comments and opinions were very impressive!
Here are some of their considerations about the argument:
“…Which is the element that makes you feel part of Florence? Is it visiting the museums or eating the Bistecca alla Fiorentina in a very expensive restaurant? I don’t think so. I think that when you start living in a place, and you also start working, you start taking part to the daily routine of that place, so you are not a tourist anymore and you don’t behave as you still were it. So, life in Florence is not only going to the museums or doing something special, but it’s also study, work and routine…”
“…Since I live in Florence, I noticed that life is very expensive! One of the main means of livelihood for Florence is tourism, and of course also fashion and luxury, but this is often an outward way of living, because actually many families have financial difficulties and living here is quite hard…”
“…I noticed that there is a strong sense of solidarity between the families of the block of flats where I live. I think that Italian people in general have a great sense of community and neighborhood, and this is different from America, where people live on their own without having any contact with their neighbor…!”
“What I expected to find and what I actually found:
The social aspect of Italians: they are very open and dramatic people above all when they discuss something
The food culture: for Italian people living is eating, but in the sense that to them the eating time is a time to spend together, a time to share opinions, feelings, etc.
The sense of belonging to a place
I also learnt one thing from this experience: imagination is something that you can’t have if you don’t have real life.”
“…Before coming to Florence I had the common stereotypes that everyone has about Italians: pizza, football, mandolino. This is what I imagined, actually I learnt that reality is often very different from imagination. Florence is in fact a very cosmopolitan place where different people from different cultures leave together every day with all the difficulties that come from a similar situation…”
“…How the Florentine people do behave with foreign people? Do they accept the fact that their city is full of foreign people? What do they think about the foreign tourists?…Sometimes it seems to me that they have an attitude to separation from other people…”
“…I am from Angola and I have been living in Florence for 8 years. My idea of Florence has changed a lot during these years. Before coming here I thought that all Italian people were Catholic, but then I suddenly realized that it was an old idea. In fact, I usually go to Mass while my Italian friends meet me later outside the church…”
“…Living in Florence gave me the sensation of being independent and self-governing. When I arrived here I suddenly felt that I could walk around the city without losing myself and in an autonomous way. Florence transmits a sense of safety and independence…”
“…Every place in the World is different from all the others and it’s unique, and every place communicates something different and peculiar…”
“…To deepen your own knowledge of a place you need to feel the spirit of that place and immerse yourself in the local customs and culture…”
“..To get in contact with a place you need time and patience, you need to be curious and investigating, you need to listen to that place…”
“…To understand a city you can observe people in their daily actions, such as waiting for a bus, going to work, etc…”.
These are just some of the ideas that came out yesterday during this meeting and we would be very happy if these guys wrote other comments on our blog!!!
The IMAGINATION/REALITY theme is very important to understand many things on people and places and to realize how easy it is to generate stereotypes in general.
How can we avoid to be superficial in our judgements?…
Think about it!
Lbt