Before coming to Italy, I had heard that Europeans don't really put ice in their drinks, but I didn't believe it until I got here. Finding iced coffee, iced matcha or even iced tea has been surprisingly difficult at some cafés! Another thing that shocked me was that restaurants don't automatically give you free water. On my very first night, my friends and I ordered water without realizing how expensive it was going to be. We ended up paying $12 each for water, which was more than my actual meal!
4. Finding the protein I'm used to is surprisingly difficult
At the smaller grocery stores near my apartment, the meat selection is nothing like what I'm used to in America. Some of the steaks I've found are barely a centimeter thick, and finding the types of chicken or turkey I normally eat has been harder than expected. Due to this, I've had to start eating a lot more beans and chickpeas and finding other ways to get protein.
5. Dryers aren't really a thing here
This has probably been one of the hardest adjustments. Instead of throwing my clothes into a dryer, I have to hang everything on a drying rack and wait for it to air-dry. Sometimes my clothes take an entire day or longer to dry. I've even seen clotheslines hanging outside apartment windows all over Florence. It definitely makes doing laundry a much bigger process than I'm used to!
6. The streets are super tiny
Some of the streets in Florence are so narrow that I genuinely don't understand how cars fit through them. Many are one-way streets, and some don't even have proper sidewalks. I'll be walking down what looks like a little alleyway, and suddenly a car or motorcycle will come squeezing past me!
