a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Today started out dark and cloudy, but by 11 AM the sun was out and the sky a clear blue. After morning coffee we went shopping locally: to the bakery for a mezzo loaf os eomthing that looks like it will be very good for us - grains, etc.; the green grocer for pears and some interesting olives; and to the vendor outside our front door for bananas. A quick breakfast and then an outing to the super and pronzoat La Spada. We did not go last night as it was pouring rain. It was everything we remembered. Cheerful, delicious, colorful.

Photo of La Spada goes here.

Unfortunately I cannot upload photos. You will have to wait! I had Tagliatelle with fresh porcini mushrooms, what I have been waiting for these long three years. The Patient had his second bowl of Ribolita soup. We went to dinner at a little restaurant around the corner last night where he finally broke his Ribolita fast.

About noon we headed across the river to do some more grocery shopping and to hit La Spada. Retracing our steps from the market I found the elegant paper shop I saw before, and the bakery where I bought anise-flavored cookies to nibble while sipping Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine we were served at La Spada the first time we ate there.

On our walks we have passed by the creme de la creme of Italian couture shops for both men and women. Italian women are invariably chic. However, everything in the windows is black, everything on their bodies is black. If black had not been invented they would go naked.

Photo of naked Italian woman goes here.

(just kidding)

There are massive crowds everywhere near the Duomo and Santa Croce, thousands of people milling around, taking photos, pointing and oogling, cleaning out the souvenier stands. While on our stroll we came upon a parade of the Chianti Wine Growers (I know there should be an apostrophe here but I cannot find one on this keyboard.) Collective . These worthies were all dressed up in robes and other costumes and marched down the street to the beat of snare drums. Very colorful. It was a traffic stopper.

Photo of gents in costume goes here.

I have tried uploading pix for this page but as I am a Mac user and my native tongue is English, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do it on this PC. My faithful readers will just have to wait.

It is now time to trudge up the 70 stairs to the apartment and read the IHT for the weekend. Tomorrow we go to the SMN train station to check on both train and bus schedules for various outings. Then to the Ufizzi to buy tickets for next week. Did not get to the Boboli this morning as we were afraid the super would close at 12:30 and not be open tomorrow. Wrong on both counts.