Back in Florence

We returned to Florence from Paris late Wednesday evening after a short flight on Easyjet, one of the European discount airlines. We much prefer them to Ryanair, which we have flown twice now, and, I might add, a conclusion shared by the young American woman sitting next to Susan on our flight back to Italy.

(Plus the attendants on Easyjet had cool outfits, orange and black, like some sophisticated fashion statement for mechanics. They looked really comfortable and the attendants were pleasant and some were actually friendly. Imagine that. Easyjet has nicer planes; friendlier service and they don’t seem to have bizarre ideas about airline travel. One example. When we were returning from Frankfurt on Ryanair, which is course is not really in Frankfurt nor is it even close to Frankfurt, being probably closer to Switzerland or France or whatever, but certainly not Frankfurt, although someone allows them to say they are. Anyway on our return flight last December the last five rows of the plane were roped off. Now the plane was packed – and of course everyone tells you that revenue is everything to the airlines so why are these seats empty, I asked, implying that no one was paying for sitting there. The surly attendant informed me that it was to maintain the plane’s balance in the air. “Balance?” I jokingly said something toe effect “oh so the plane won’t break in half”? Yes, was the reply.)

Anyway, we landed in Pisa at about 8:30 pm, picked up our bag and got on the next train to Pisa Centrale, a ride of about 5 minutes form the airport, where we had about a half hour wait for the Florence train. After another hour or so on the train we arrived at Santa Maria Novella station in Florence. It was a lovely evening as we walked home, picking up a couple of pannini on the way. What a grand time we had had.

Before going to bed I checked emails and updated my newsreader (my rss links to headline news stories). For some time now I have been getting a word-a-day sent to my newsreader from dictionary.com and interestingly the latest word was palimpsest, defined as “something reused or altered but still bearing traces of its earlier form.” Palimpsest perfectly described not only Paris but of course our entire experience in Italy. It also of course perfectly described the two of us, since both of us have felt that we have been profoundly “altered from our earlier form.”

Altered, changed, modified. Such words have been the touchstones for our trip here, the foundations on which our motives for living in Florence presently rest. And of course the very reason we are moving to Paris in August – OK the end of July probably. But in any case we are going leaving here and going there, where we will live has yet to be determined, and how we will get there who knows. But go we will.

As I said in my previous post, the reason we went to Paris this past week was for Susan to visit Le Cordon Bleu, speak with an advisor about their Patisserie Diploma program and submit here application. Of course we also wanted to revisit the city where we had such fond memories of an all-too-brief stopover so many years ago. But first and foremost it was to see Le Cordon Bleu. But we saw, no, experienced so much else besides.

But, you might ask, what about the yearlong pastry and baking program at Apicius, the Culinary Institute of Florence? I have tried to answer that question in another recent post, “Some thoughts about Apicius,” which you can find in the archives. You can check there for a more detailed discussion of the problems that Susan discovered during her first part of the two-part program. In a nutshell, the lack of seriousness on the part of many of the college-age students attending Apicius was certainly one factor in her decision to go elsewhere.

But at bottom, it was the school’s failure to commit itself to Susan’s interests. She began the “year-long” program in January, hoping to finish through an intensive second half by the end of the summer. By mid-April it was clear that would not happen. By early-May it was still unclear whether the advanced, second half program would even happen in the fall. We wouldn’t know one way or the other until when? Late July? August? The school simply could not tell us for sure if the program was going to happen. We decided to move on.

So if Susan gets accepted it’s off to Paris we go. We should know any day now.

Still we have lots to do here in Florence; food to eat, places to see, an entire culture to savor every day. We hope to join our friends Warren and Gladys for the Memorial Day ceremony out at the American Soldier’s Cemetery in Florence, the end of the month.