It’s been a pretty quiet week here in Florence – for us at any rate. (photo: homework homework!)Florence on the other hand is seeing a large influx of tourists as the season gets started in full swing. Right now, as we approach Liberation Day (25 April) a great many tourists are Italians, since they have a long weekend (or a short week) and many places are closed on Monday the 24th. (Over 1 million people visited Florence last year.)
Susan’s schoolwork continues and she provides us with wonderful desserts at homer – all on a trial basis of course – as well as morning treats and late afternoon sweets. . . She is in charge providing the breads and a few of the pastries for the restaurant simulation which comes at the end of the course and is naturally trying to figure out exactly who in her group is going to do what, when and how much.
Other than our routine here at home and in Florence we just get about our lives – with the singular exception of going through frequent periods of wondering just what we are going to do with the rest of our lives. Aside form that everything is pretty much normal – except of course we no longer have any cue as to what “normal” is exactly. I know, part of all this “avventura” has been to try and find out what “floats our boat”. Right now, this very moment, we’re not sure we’re even in the water. Well OK sometimes we know we’re in the water – some may even say in “hot water” – but this is what we asked for after all.
With didn’t take any day trips on Friday as we often do – Sue had a meeting at school about the simulation so we just stayed in Florence and battled the crowds on our daily passegiata through town.
Saturday, though, we headed off by bus back to Siena where we had had lunch with Aimone and Alessandra. We visited with Aimone the week before and planned to return to have lunch at the new restaurant that now occupies a large portion of what used to be Cantina in Piazza. Mind you “Cantina” still exists, it is just that now it is a wine shop only, no food or tasting or anything. Too bad.
But we had a great lunch after all: we spent about 4 hours chatting and nearly all in Italian something we need to do with great regularity. The food was OK, but the wines – from Aimone’s shop of course – were wonderful, although the first bottle of Brunello was corked and was promptly replaced. (We got to take the corked bottle home to be used in cooking, however.) Alessandra joined us late – but we all caught up on who was doing what and where and how. A wonderful afternoon spent in our favorite city with nice people – what more could we ask for? (And we did come away with a bottle of Barbaresco in preparation for my making “stracotto,” or Italian pot roast for Tuesday, 25 April.)
We had hoped to catch up with Patti and Roberto to try and make some progress on the video interview voiceover sessions, which still await us. We want to try and finish some if not all of these before we head back to the US in June to visit family and friends but this is starting to be peak season for Roberto’s guide business and so all remains open to doubt right now.
Sunday was a beautiful day in Florence – we missed the reenactment of the Allies liberation of Florence in 1944 – there were vintage vehicles including a Sherman tank as well as jeeps, etc. and of course a large number of folks dressed in American WW2 army uniforms. There was a parade of vehicles from the Piazzale Michelangelo to Cascine Park. We didn’t even know this was going to happen! (A common problem here in Italy is the lack of truly effective communication among the local population.) In fact it wasn’t even in the Florentine (the English language paper here) – and I only read it about it this morning in La Nazione (one of Italy’s dailies). There were some great photos in the paper revealing to me anyway a truly grand photo opportunity missed.
Instead we spent the morning doing household chores.
In early afternoon we walked over to the Fortezza da Basso, the large old Medici fortress near the train station, for the 70th annual artisan’s show. This was, is, a huge affair and occupies nearly all the buildings inside the fortezza (Florence’s “fiera” or fairgrounds, used for expositions ands the like). We walked through one of the huge gates and found our way over to the ticket office – where we also found many of the large creatures used in the Carnevale from this past February as well. Quite amazing productions – very detailed and almost lifelike – sort of what the Republican party leadership would produce like if they had a sense of humor. Not to mention a sense of propriety.
We paid our money and strolled to the first hall. We spent the afternoon wandering from hall to hall looking at what seemed an endless array of imported clothes, trinkets, household things and scads of other “handcrafted” items from within Italy and around the world. Quite fascinating in fact – although terribly overwhelming. Aside from one young woman who worked a clothing stall where Susan bought a jumper we didn’t one word of English the entire time we were in the fortezza.
We wandered from jewelry to clothes to African trinkets (interestingly listed by country) – faced with a vast array of bongos in varying sizes – and on to the hall of home ideas where we saw everything from an enormous slab of rock cut out to be a sink on one end to fur humps for your floor – and of course the odd bit of artwork for the avant garde.
There was also the leather mask maker – although quite a bit more sophisticated than anything from Wes Craven, still there was an eerie quality about these things – maybe it’s the inherent mystery of people wearing masks. Maybe I’m goofy. And I still don’t get the life-size cotton ball that looks like a dress – hey it’s cool for sure – but I just didn’t see where it fit in and needless to say Susan couldn’t explain it to me. And there was the stuff on the floor that looked like sand but was actually finely ground glass – sort of a reversing of the glass-making process I suppose.
In any hall there was one vendor from southern France I believe selling soap – and to prove how truly effective their product was they were, uh, washing people’s hands. Although I swear the one girl seemed to enjoy doing this above and beyond the call, if you get my drift. Anyway it was good to see such serious commitment to a product’s value. “I will not only tell you about this but here let me wash your hands to show you how swell this bar of soap really is!” Interesting marketing technique – and only from la belle France!
At one point we had to stop and take a break so we had a bite to eat – kebabs of all things although there was also a Mexican food as well as an Indian food stall available as well. And of course there were numerous bars serving sweets, pannini’s, coffee, wine, water, etc. throughout the entire complex. We then returned to the fray.
It wasn’t until we were nearly at the end (of our rope) that we came upon the one hall that had all the food and wine – along with the “wellness” vendors hawking massage chairs and massage techniques. Anyway, back to food, most of the major regions were represented, Sicily, Puglia, Campania, Toscana of course, much if not nearly all available for tasting. (We couldn’t help but comment later on how much really great food comes from the southern regions. Sicily and Puglia in particular.) Unfortunately by then we were too tired to taste much of anything – although I did purchase a bag of my favorite olives, the huge Cerignolas from Puglia. A small but vital consolation.
We found the “uscita” (exit) and limped home – but what a beautiful evening for strolling. Naturally had to open some wine to soothe our aching muscles. What some people don’t go through so that others may learn form their mistakes. I hope you guys appreciate all this hard work and unceasing devotion to bringing you the latest from Florence. . . .
Wish you were here,
Steve
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