Advertisement
Published: December 17th 2004
December 16th, 2004
Along with a glass of milk, I just ate the green, sugar crystal-speckled head of a molasses reindeer. I shared a confection-sugar coated almond cookie with my flat mate who closed her eyes to savor, and I smiled thinking of my mother. Christmas. Downtown, the church bells are ringing deep and far above us, there is the Romanian street band playing in Piazza Republica around the corner, behind me in the busy street passers-by pause by a video and music presentation that takes up an entire store-front, a hip advertisement strategy. Today I had lunch with my nephew and climbed 463 stairs to witness a birds eye view of a very misty and hauntingly quiet Firenze from Ghiberti’s dome. At the top of this stone magnificence, breathless, he proposed to his girlfriend.
My orange slippers on green marble make me happy. Many Italian households welcome the shoe/slipper exchange upon entering the house, and I along with them. Light falls differently upon Florence and illuminates arches, or cracks in the road, or saturates the dull with intensity. There is no snow, there are no carolers, and I am not helping to put the Christmas tree up. There
are, however, rows and rows of tiny, white and warm lights hanging like sparkling canopies protecting and illuminating the streets in the center of the city. Odd variations of children’s christmas carols play on the speaker in the main department stores. Most bars and restaurants have either joined the festive spirit with lines of lights, sprigs of pine, or a twinkling, charming Christmas tree in the corner. The shelves stocked with foil-covered chocolates, attractive boxes of pandoro and pannetone, round, thin precious packages of panforte in Florentine paper begin to dwindle. Japanese hang on street corners selling cloth reindeer antlers and blinking santa hats, hoping to attract excited children and willing parents. And they do.
ps...I received a 30 of 30 on my final Italian exam…which means I have the potential to use the following at my discretion: verb tenses-passato prossimo, imperfectto, presente, condizionale, futuro, futuro composito, verbi reflessivi, pronomi possessivi, preposizioni, articoli indeterminativo e determinativo. In January I will take an exam that will place me in the 3 levels within the CORSO MEDIO (I am not passing out of corso elementario!). My friend Kim and I have purchased The Little Prince in Italian from our
favorite bookstore Edison (there you can sit (if you’re lucky enough to find a table with an empty chair-tables often contain 4 individuals with absolutely no acquaintance!) with a cappuccino, a hunk of chocolate cake or bowl of fresh fruit and flip through hundreds of books-my favorite of course are the children’s and the huge, hardbound art volumes.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.332s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 95; dbt: 0.1196s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Savage
Mark Savage
Coming over
I'm really enjoying your pictures, it's letting me see what to expect. I'm headed over for a little trip (all of about 9 days) in February. Be spending a bit of time around the Modena and Bologna area before headed to Rome. Let me know if there are any "Can't Miss" areas in Florence, as I'll be running around like a madman! :)