Florence is a beautiful Tuscan city in central Italy that, for better or worse, is fairly small and largely traversable by foot. My host home is a 20-minute walk from the Syracuse campus villa where I will attend classes for the semester during my time studying abroad, and a 35-minute walk to the duomo, an imperial gothic cathedral in the center of the city.

Administrators, faculty members, students of the S.A. and members of the a cappella group The Class Notes stood in the second floor of the Cornell Store, waiting — waiting for something to happen, waiting for somebody to arrive.

Noon came. Noon went. Nothing. Nobody.

The anticipation was palpable.

12:05 p.m. Still nobody of note.