Later this year we are renting an apartment in Florence for a month and using it as a base—to enjoy all that Florence has to offer, which is a lot, and to explore as much of northern Italy as possible.
I decided to use the trip as an impetus to learn as much Italian as I can before I go, and to have that as a base to get better—hopefully much better—once living there. So I enrolled in a language course and am studying at least an hour a day.
I am really enjoying the discipline, the focus, the joy of learning new things, and keeping my brain active and young. It is an important part of what it means, for me, to become a fully formed person.