I spent the day on my own walking around Florence. I actually didn't get very far because I found a park with trees!! I get excited when I see trees as there are so few in the historic section of this town. My goal today was to study italiano and that I did. I sat in the park on a rather uncomfortable cement bench with no back and studied for almost four hours. I missed Friday so I wanted to get caught up in the book. The park was full of people-groups of friends, married couples, neighbors, young students, little children, people meeting for dates. I noticed people didn't just pass through the park quickly headed for home. Some were there when I got there and were still there when I left four hours later. What looked like a family was sitting near me. They sat and talked nonstop for four hours. It was fun pausing from my studying to listen to their conversation very little of which I understood. It's exciting when I understand something I just learned. It's so strange that I'm so motivated to learn Italian. I do just enjoy the discipline but I don't really know where I'm going with it. What will I ever do with it? Do I even have to worry about that? Maybe I didn't think everything through before I came here. So strange. Who knows what will happen... Anyway, it made me happy that these people in the park were not in a rush to get anywhere. They weren't alone at home watching TV. They were doing what human beings were meant to do. Communicate with each other. Good for them.