A few observations

1. We were envious of the shoes until we saw the size of the BUNIONS and watched a hobbling old woman cling to her husband as they strolled the piazza on centuries old cobblestones. She could barely walk but boy did she cut "La Bella Figura" in her high-heeled, peek-toed Italian leather shoes.

2. The church bells sound beautiful, but seriously, twenty bongs at 7:40, seventeen at 8:04, six different churches all ringing at different times?

3. One can transport at lot more than you would think on a scooter.

4. Add Tallegio cheese to the list of smells that Tammi can't tolerate.

5. We speak Italian a lot better after a few glasses of vino.

6. Where did all these tourists come from?

Okay, now to the good stuff. Yesterday we went in search of a store we'd read about and along the way found yet another local market selling all manner of foods and goods. Our little piazza has a market every day and it seems to differ each day, but there are lots of options here. And just when we think we've got one market figured out the next day they have completely different stuff there. After going to three different locations where said store was supposed to be ( saw a lot of the city along the way though) we finally found the store just as she was closing until Monday afternoon. They definitely have work-life balance here. We'll be making another trip over there based on what we saw in the window. We stopped for a prosecco hoping to find someone to converse with. Easier said than done. The couple next to us were French and on the other side were Americans. So we headed back to the apartment and went out for dinner at a notorious locals hangout that turns out to be steps from our door. Bingo! They seated a woman and her daughter next to us and we talked, completely in Italian for two hours.

Today our friend Stefano graciously invited us to go with him, his sister and their friends out into the countryside to a winery called Casalbosco where his friend Frank is the manager. They were having a tasting. Mark, two of their wines scored over 90 points in Wine Spectator.
Their entire group agreed to no English so our little brains were taxed but we actually understood most everything and contributed to the conversation! Tonight we're kicking off our comfort shoes and staying in.

What IS that smell?

Yesterday we went to the Mercato Centrale to pick up fresh veggies and bread for a pasta dinner at home. It's a great open market with to-die-for produce, meats, cheeses and oils. Our prize find was giant fresh porcini mushrooms. The night before we'd had a marginal meal after visiting every known book shop looking for the Michelin Green Guide on Florence, in English. They have hundreds in Italian but, go figure, none in the language most of the tourists here speak. Not because they're sold out; they just don't have them, and we could only imagine how we could butcher a translation from Italian on 15th century oil panels in the Brancacci Chapel. Anyway, dinner at home yesterday sounded really good and we were dying to try those hurkin' fresh porcinis. Has anybody ever seen a fresh one? They're WAY bigger than the mushrooms that used to grow on our bathroom carpet as kids. Later in the afternoon we headed back up to Piazza della Republica to meet our friend Adri and deliver gifts from Boise. We spoke mostly Italian with her for over two hours and she laughed when we thought she should so we're pretty sure we didn't sound like idiots. She treated us to lunch and invited us to dinner at her place next week so that's a good sign, right? Back to those mushrooms. Use the dried ones. We're pretty sure the bathroom mushrooms would have been better. But the pasta was great and the chianti delicious so all in all a good day. Today we wandered through Santo Spirito, San Frediano and Santa Carmine churches and down to the 12th century city gates. When we got back to the apartment Tam's nose went into overdrive. It's either the mushrooms or the Tallegio cheese. More air freshener tomorrow.

Well, at least the flight was first class.

Tammi and I have been planning this trip for a year because, after three years of studying Italian, we figured what better place to practice than Italy? So, with Florence as our destination and a rented apartment that looked great on the Internet, we packed our bags last Monday and prayed we could get on a flight (our dad's a retired pilot). We did and they even put us in first class. Great flight to Milan and it went downhill from there. The airport is an hour from the train station, an hour to figure out how to get there and another two hours on the train to Florence. We found our apartment easily and let's just say the pictures were deceiving. Try lugging two 50 lb bags up 57 steps only to find the apartment doesn't actually have Internet, the lights work sometimes and Tam's convinced the place was previously used as a cat refuge. But as Joe says, she can smell a flea fart in Panama. First errand...air fresheners. Other than that it's a very convenient place and an easy walk to anywhere. And hey, we're in Florence. How bad can that be? And they understand us when we speak in Italian! Hmmm, 57 steps two or three times a day...Dio mio!