New Yorkers a Firenze

I had a very long day. I was at campus all day and we had an extra guest lecture for politics so I was completely exhausted. I was rushing home to eat before we had to meet with our Marketing group to finally finish our project. As I am about to cross the bridge almost at my apartment I see a group of women surrounding someone on the ground in front of the Salvatore Ferragamo museum. There were a lot of them so I figured they didnt need my help, whatever was going on. But then I realize they all only speak English and everyone looks really panicked so I stop to make sure everything is alright.

It appeared that an older women had fallen and broken her nose on the cobble stone. Her daughter-in-law is dramatized by the whole situation and can barely speak. Then these other 3 ladies from Brooklyn are trying to help in whatever way they can. As I'm walking by I hear them going let's call an ambulance, we have to call an ambulance. I stopped to ask them if they needed the number and they were like yes, yes! I was like oh ok it's 118. And they were like well how do we call from our phone, how do we do this? And I was like how about I just call, not a big deal. So i call the ambulance and the operator does not speak English. perfect! So i manage to use whatever Italian I can to say the this lady is hurt and to send an ambulance to our address. The guy understands but then transfer me, so I desperately try to explain the situation again but this new operator can speak English. He tells me to go get ice at a bar and put it on her nose until the ambulance gets there. So I tell the Brooklyn women this but they are like well we don't know the word for ice, I was like ok I will go with you. In the meantime the daughter-in-law runs back to the hotel to get all the insurance cards, phones, etc. to help her poor mother-in-law. As I walk with one of the ladies from Brookyln I realize they dont know these other 2 women at all. After we got ice from a bar we dumped some out in the sewer because the ladies from Brooklyn were convinced that it was simply too much ice. I was like it's fine better too much then too little we can just dump some out.

So as we are waiting a local Florentine comes up to us and tells us in Italian that he is a doctor. He pulls a glove out of his briefcase and feels this poor lady's nose. He then calls the ambulance again but they reassured him that one was coming and that I had already called. So he left us and I thanked him.

The daughter-in-law we find out is getting married in Florence and her and her mother-in-law were here to plan the wedding. The old lady is just so upset that she is ruining this bride's vacation that she is just crying repeatedly saying sorry. The bride is just in shock because she doesn't know what to do. She's in this foreign country with her fiancee's mother who now has a broken nose. She is trying to call everyone at home and really can't stop shaking she's so nervous. The women from Brooklyn are now concerned about the lady's nose for the pictures. They were like o no is the wedding Saturday!?! We found out the wedding was actually in October and the Brooklyn ladies were relieved, they said "O honey, you will definitely have a new nose by then, no need to worry!" I dont think they quite realized that wasn't anyone's main concern, how her nose looked in the wedding photo. The rest of us were just trying to make sure she was okay. Finally the ambulance arrived. Then I hear one of the ladies say, "I heard the Italian medical care is the worst" I didnt say anything but I just wanted to be like, why would you say that? How is this helping the situation for this poor bride and her mother-in-law?Luckily one of the medics spoke English so she was able to help a lot. After the ambulance arrived the Brooklyn people said bye to us and congratulated the bride. The medics put the lady on the stretcher and I took a minute to talk to the bride. I assured her that she would be able to ride in the ambulance and that everything would be okay. I know plenty of people who have had to go to the Florence hospital. Because of the healthcare system they take an excessive amount of tests and there is usually a really long wait but this is all normal. I also told her that someone in the hospital will speak English and that everything will be fine. She was still extremely nervous when she got in the ambulance. But she thanked me and said bye.

It was quite an experience, one I was not ready for especially after my very long day. However, it was really interesting...the bride was from Manhattan, the mother-in-law from Long Island, 3 women from Brooklyn, and me from NYU in Manhattan all together on the streets of Florence trying to deal with the situation as best as possible. I also realized that Italian class needs to place emphasis on emergency vocabulary especially if you are taking Italian in Italy, it was almost impossible to explain to the operator what went wrong.