random name thoughts+headcanons

"françois bonnefoy" is something that he came up with when he was the nation equivalent of 10-12, because it really sounds more like a medievalbrained Cool Title than a real name.....hello i am a frenchman of the good faith. d'accord jeunehomme! people might have already been calling him something like The Frank or the frankish child (in their various dialects) so he really just....took this to the logical conclusion. (side note: i like the idea of his roman cognomen having been flavius/flaviulus, "yellow" for his hair)

"veneziano" is pretty self-explanatory, just a place-of-origin name, in fact iirc there were some people historically who having no last name, just used this one, like the painter bartolomeo veneziano. "feliciano" is apparently not a real italian name(?correct me if this is wrong?) but could have come through any number of vulgar latin takes on "felix" ("happy") i'm very attached to feliciano as a name of his even though its linguistically questionable, because i think it makes so much sense for this name to have stuck with him...sometimes it's happily accurate and sometimes its darkly ironic.

"romano" is another one that probably rose from a nickname given to him by others. i'm not sure if the italybros ever even met their "father" and romano's primary childhood memories would probably be of east rome/byzantium (who imo is a separate character from rome) and an aging mama graecia, if she's still around. (southern italy had been greek-influenced for awhile and was controlled by east rome for a time after the fall of west rome) but these older nations would have known who this new nation-child is, and perhaps called him romulus ("little roman" basically) in remembrance of his father.

"antonio" is a pretty obvious descendent of "antonius" or "antoninus" in latin. i hc antonio to be one of the characters who remembers rome the best, so it makes sense his name would be relatively unchanged. ive toyed with the idea that "fernandez" is from one of his kings (there were a LOT of iberian kings called fernando) but its just as likely thats a story he tells to justify the name after picking it up randomly.

for my florence OC i was considering something like simonetta or clarice after famous florentine women, but eventually i was like....why fight it. her name is fiora/flora, depending on inconsistent medieval spelling. fiorella if she's being babied or teased. i think it would have grown naturally out of the name of her city, with people calling her "the florentine girl" or "the little florentine" before it slowly became less of a title and more of a name.

imo rome is lucius (taken from @absolvtely-barbaric who is so so smart) but he could have any number of cognomen (in roman naming conventions, thats the name you're more likely to be identified by) from the ever popular romulus (little roman. little rome man. little guy from rome. lmao) to marius (for mars, his patron god/probably dad) to my favorite, crispinus ("curly-top", basically, which is funny and also connects him to the italies with their special curls)

Il mio amore💛

Does student advocacy still apply this year (no HW over Thanksgiving and stuff)?

Response from Firenze:

I’m pretty sure it does.

1st week in Florence

Hey yall! So it’s been awhile since i’ve updated this blog. This past week and half has been hella busy and crazy. I’ve also still been recording and have to edit the vlog but i’ll try to release it sometime sunday or tbh i might just do this tuesday but we’ll see. Anyways, each day has been such a crazy adventure so i’ll just give a somewhat day to day summary or at least what i remember, honestly this week has been a blur lol

Day 1- I flew in to Amsterdam and got delayed so i missed my connecting flight but i was able to catch a plane to rome and then florence so it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to me. I got to Florence and was awestruck by all the beauty that i saw that evening. I went in to meet my suitemates and it was super dope. Matthew opens the door and is super welcoming and i’m already like “oh shit i totally fuck with this guy.” He was super welcoming and nice to me, I then proceed to move into my room and meet my roommate Zach, some of yall have probably seen many snaps of us. We had that instant connection and it’s been such a blessing to live with a roommate who’s clean, super chill, and very nice. I meet the rest of my suitemates, Carter, Navjit, and Sasha and they’re all pretty chill as well. After settling in i unpacked and passed the fuck out.

Day 2- So this is the first day I actually got to walk around Firenze and get to know the culture of Italy. I first went to a longass orientation and it was pretty much like welcome week all over again, a little boring but def necessary. Later I took a tour with NYU and it was pretty cool to get some historical background on many buildings and artwork. I met some really cool people on the tour and we got lunch and that was my first meal, pumpkin risotto and some white wine and i was like “holy shit this is so good! bless up” I then went around just walking around the city. Then i passed out at like 10pm, honestly orientation week drains me so much.

Day 3- Second day and it def ended v bizarrely...any one from Florence will know what im exactly talking about lol. I woke up and went on another tour towards the river in Firenze and it was so beautiful, it was such a beautiful sunny day. I got lunch with some people on that tour as well and it was hella good, but i forgot what i ate. Later we had a mandatory movie screening and we watched Tale of Tales. If you ever want to be scarred and appalled but also slightly amazed, watch this movie. Tbh the only reason i feel like NYU made us watch this was to all be connected through the horror that we saw LOL. I went to a food market after and met another group of pretty dope as people and got some weird italian burger but it was actually amazing, the black truffle, the weird potato puree type thing, and some other white sauce made it so unique. Like italians can do burgers better than americans LOL I later went home that night and passed out again at like 11.

Day 4- Third day and we take another tour, honestly i love tours so much lol. Later we go to campus for the first time and have orientation and they had a bunch of seminars and a bombass lunch. I learned a lot about Italian culture from a staff member who’s from here and i was so shocked yet also very interested at some of the ways to conduct oneself. Italians love eating 5 course meals for dinner and a v light breakfast, i learned about proper eating culture (apparently you can’t eat bread as an appetizer it’s more a side dish, and you cant’t get a cappuccino after 11am), and many other things. I had lunch with some people i met in line and they were really cool as well. We then went to get our SIM cards and then went home. I was gon go out that night but then Zach (my roommate) is like “yo wanna watch nature docs?” and at the time i wasn’t too interested but i decided to give it a chance. Fucking. Amazing. I hate to be all “philosophical” but watching that makes you appreciate earth so much more and i really recommend watching Planet Earth on netflix. Then i passed out.

Day 5- It’s now Saturday and i chill for most of the day and then i go to yet again another tour. I get dinner with some friends and then head back to home. I eventually go out for the first time to a bar and club. The bar was alright it wasn’t what i imagined tbh but the cocktails were mad good. The club was a litlle boring tbh maybe cause i didn’t particularly enjoy the choice of song but i got drunk enough and then i enjoyed it LOL. Honestly raving is much better for me so idk if i’ll be going out to clubs as much anymore but who knows. I come home at like 4am and pass the fuck out.

Day 6- Honestly I don’t really remember too much what i did Sunday I just chilled for the most part and then did some italian hw. 

I won’t go too much into my school week since i’ll save that for another blog post. Overall this week has been so overwhelmingly awesome. I met so many fantastic people, ate tooo much for my own good, and def drank way more wine in one week then i did my whole life LOL. This week felt like welcome week all over again minus the tours. I was so awestruck by NY (as i am currently), the different culture, food, and being so free was all re-experienced here as well, as well as the confusion and bit of boredom here and there (more so during free time). Nonetheless I feel already very close to a good group of people here and have met many other people as well and have enjoyed being in class with them and getting lunch with many people. I honestly did feel like i was a bit too excited to make friends but whatever, hopefully it didn’t seem to obvious. Not going to lie though it’s been a bit weird not communicating with people from back home and CA very often but i try to make time here and there. Once i settle down hopefully i can skype more people soon. But living in a foreign country and not being able to communicate with the locals is def the hardest part but i’m slowly adjusting. Not so much a lesson on this post (like i said idk what i still want to do with this blog) but more so just an update on my life. Thank you to those who’ve read this far! I hope you all have a great start to the semester and I hope yall keep up todate with my blog. Have a good rest of your day or start to your day and a safe weekend! :D