Monday, Monday

I feel like I am posting early today, mostly because I "home" early today. It was a rainy gloomy day, and while I certainly am waterproof, my cameras are less so. Of course they would have been perfectly dry had I brought my rain jacket but it was warm and dry in my suitcase.

One highlight was a great lunch. I haven't talked much about food, in part because I haven't exactly been starving at any point of my trip. But I am functionally eating--when I am hungry I find something to eat so I can keep walking. The rain encouraged me to sit and eat, and it was a good meal, though not amazing I want to meet the chef I'll never have a meal this good again. And it was expensive, at least for me. I have been more likely to eat off the street, so to speak, with sandwiches (of sorts--I have avoided the tripe sandwich which seems to be so popular here) or bread and cheese from the market. That is fine with me, though it might be one more reason I am traveling alone!

What made lunch fun was the company. I sat near three women from California, and they were funny. Two of them had just been in Rome for two weeks so they could be "one with Rome." The third was a daughter, who I really suspect came for a week to make sure her Mom didn't buy a villa somewhere. They brightened the day, and they shared great advice about Rome, though I think they thought I was a heathen for only giving it a day. They were renting a car, and a convertible Mini-Cooper was mentioned several times. One more reason I am taking the bus into Tuscany...

The pictures were a bit flat today, no doubt due to the weather but also because I am not exactly sure what I am doing. I am "covering" this place kind of like I would if I was working for the paper and looking for feature photos. I don't think that the photos are bad, and they tell part of the story, but if my goal was to find a photo or two to sell, I have not succeeded. Maybe once I am out of the city proper. I guess if nothing else they are better than average tourist pictures. I have one of the best cameras in the world, good lenses, and I am in Florence--how hard can it really be?

I know some people know I like cobblestones, and Florence does have some cobblestone streets. Actually, they are missing one, the 33rd up and 16th over as it is my bag so it can commune with my cobblestones from Paris, London, and Prague. A few fall flowers, the only fall colors I have seen, peek out around a gate. I had to post another photo of a Fiat 500, if for no other reason than the color. This is the newer one, probably from about 1968-9, that put out 19 horsepower or so. It is the safer one--it has a more substantial bumper, of course. As much as I want one, the thought of it and a Ford Explorer meeting at an intersection scares me.

I went to several markets, including the one that has the lucky symbol of Florence, a bronze boar. Like lucky pigs everywhere, you pet him (yes, it is very visually a him) and then put a coin in his mouth and if it drops in the grate below, you will be lucky or your hair will grow or something like that. I like the woman in the little market on the edge of the city center, if not for the color, certainly for the wrinkles. As for the cat, who knows? The color contrast, maybe? Or is because I got to say, "stupid cat." Poor David. Even iconic masterpieces have to suffer an occasional pigeon or two. I think that there might be a life lesson in this!