Just finished a tour of the Duomo in Florence. It was around 3pm local time when walking back to my apartment, and the outdoor market was quite eerie. not the normal white noise you tend to hear: vendors hocking their leather goods, men whistling at women, soccer scores on the radio. everyone was quite, all the radios were tuned into the same news report. Things were very still. I didn't notice it at first.
About 20 minutes later, one of the students in my program came by the apartment and told us what happened. We ran to a bar behind our building to catch some news in English. It was packed with students. We had all just arrived in Florence only 5 days before this (though I had already been oversees for a month).
The mood changed considerably. No one could tell us what would happen. If we would be sent home. A few freaked and flew home as soon as possible. It was an odd 5 months after that. Though, thankfully, being out of country I didn't have to endure the unsuppressed decent into nationalism. I'm sure it was fine in the beginning, but it only lead to where we are now, and I don't really recognize the attitude in this country compared to what it was before.