In good company

Me, C, and the Sindaco di Firenze

One of the best parts of traveling, in particular when traveling with a friend, is the chance to have unexpected encounters with others. I note that traveling with a friend is key, because traveling alone as a woman, I have to be pretty defensive when out and about. When on my own, I generally don't spend as much time in bars or restaurants, because places like that tend to invite company I do not appreciate. But when I'm with a good wingman, we get out and about all over the place.

So far this trip, in just one week, we have had some great chats with our new best friends.

One day, we went for a quick sandwich so we wouldn't be going to our wine tasting on an empty stomach. (Point of fact: Italians only drink when they eat. Culturally, they do not understand drinking wine if you are not also eating food. The tasting did involve some light food, but we wanted to be prepared.)

We found a great sandwich...shop? Stand? I'm not sure what to call the place, but I Due Fratellini (two little brothers) has a sandwich counter where they shave off perfect prosciutto, fresh mozarella, argula, pomodoro (tomatoes), and all sorts of other things on perfect bread. The sandwiches are huge, made to order from fresh ingredients, cheap, and freaking delicious. You eat them standing up, on the street. You can have wine with your sandwich, because of course you can. Our options ranged from a shot glass size, to small wine glass, to larger wine glass, and we could choose wines ranging from chianti classico to brunello di montalcino (which is pretty expensive, fancy-pants wine for those not in the know. Seriously. A sandwich shop serving brunello for five euros a glass. I love this country). We took the recommendation of one of the brothers and each got a small glass of the chianti classico for two euros a glass. And I mean glass. The wine was served in actual wine glasses so we could enjoy our wine while eating our humongous, amazing sandwiches in wax paper.

C and I were standing there, on the cobblestones, trying to juggle the sandwich and glass of wine, when I noticed a little wooden frame mounted on the wall. It had little shelves perfect for placing your wine glass while you drank.

The little wine shelf.

Right in front of the frame was a group of uomini (men) who were clearly having a power lunch. One of them was in a smart looking suit with a small pin with the symbol of Florence (the Florin) in his lapel. I had him pegged as a government official right away. There was also a man in an impressive and impeccable uniform, with lots of insignia on his lapel. He was clearly a very high ranking official in some military or psuedo military organization. The other men were also smartly dressed. They were standing right in front of the shelf, but I'm American, and don't care if Very Important People are standing there; the shelf is there for everyone to use and I'm not putting my wine glass on the curb while I eat. So, I walked over and helped myself to some space on the shelf.

After a few minutes, Mr. Fancy Suit asked where we're from. We chatted for a bit, and he introduced us to the other men in the group. Mr. Fancy Uniform was the chief of police. The others were presidents of various districts. Mr. Fancy Suit was the Mayor. "I guessed it was something like that, because of your pin!" I said. The next thing I know, he removed the pin and asked if he could put it my sweater lapel. Well, sure!

We asked about the street art that we saw throughout the city, including the piece painted right behind the wooden wine shelf. He liked the urban art, and told us a bit about it. He posed with the two brothers of the sandwich shop for a picture, so I asked for one, too. We walked away from our sandwiches smiling at the hospitality.

That's the Pitti Palace in the background.

Later on, we went to the wine tasting at the Tuscan Wine School, along with two Canadians, two Americans, and one German. We had a blast, learning about the various local wines, from a blond-haired, blue-eyed Italian woman. This made me happy, because at home, no one ever thinks I'm Italian because I don't look stereotypically Italian, yet here are blonde, fair-eyed and fair-skinned Italians, I swear. I'm not the only one.

We got along like gangbusters in this group, and afterwards, the Canadians decided we should go out for a drink to use our newfound knowledge so we figured what the hell. We thoroughly confused the waitress when we just wanted wine without food, so she brought us food anyway, which I find hilarious.

It was great fun, even if C and I were, somehow, the only liberals at the table having a conversation with two Americans who voted for Trump and said they would vote for him again and two Canadians who (I cringe as I say this) hate Trudeau. "So, I understand you like to smoke cigars..." was my segway the hell out of that conversation.

Political differences aside, it was an enjoyable evening, and one I never have at home. It takes the change of scenery and culture and a found, shared interest to bring together a group of strangers for a short while.

Austrians!

A few nights later, C and I headed to Venice for an overnight trip. She had picked out a fabulous restaurant for dinner, and we went to eat all the things. The amuse bouche was a straciatella cheese with a sardine that melted in your mouth, and it was divine. There were scallops with lemon, peanuts, and cacaoa, spaghetti with prawns (heads intact), and turbot with pumpkin sauce. Dessert was house-made tiramisu with coffee and grappa. The adorable German waiter brought out house-made limoncello and fennelcello on the house.

The food was great, but the best part turned out to be our tablemates. When we sat down, we knew the table involved family-style table seating and that we could end up with company. Two Austrian men took the seats next to us, and mostly left us alone. At some point, we started chatting. The next thing I knew, they were sharing their wine so the four of us could toast C's birthday with something in our glasses (as our wine had long since been consumed), I shared my tiramisu, we ended up talking about politics, with them cracking us up with their bafflement of American voting in someone like Trump. They also shocked me by sharing that Austrians don't watch The Sound of Music. Ever. They know the movie exists, but watching it is not part of their culture. They think it's hilarious that that's what Americans know of their little country.

I'm here for another week, and can't wait to see who I get to meet next.

Mercury in Retrograde

Mercury in retrograde is real, folks. 

I have always found horoscopes to be eerily accurate. I don’t mean the ones in the back of a magazine, but rather the in depth personality descriptions that tend to go with each sign. I’m a pisces, and the description of personality traits that go along with pisces are dead accurate. Whenever I have looked up another person’s sign and whether or not we are compatible, whatever personality issues I have already noticed are written right there in the description. I don’t understand it, but I do accept it. 

Recently, I have learned about the phenomenon that is mercury in retrograde. Here’s a great example of what the heck “mercury in retrograde” actually means:

Because Mercury is the planet situated closest to the Sun, its orbit is much shorter than Earth’s. About three or four times a year, Mercury speeds past Earth, and that is when we experience a Mercury retrograde period. If you were in a car and another car passed you, you could tell it was going faster than you. But if it slowed down and you then passed it, it would appear that that car was actually going backward. Then when the other car speeds up and passes you again, it kicks up all of the dust in the road. As Mercury speeds by, it is like a train flying past, creating a powerful, turbulent gust of “wind” in its wake. The turbulence and disruption Mercury creates when it retrogrades can affect what we feel on Earth in our everyday lives. (You can learn more here: https://www.astrologyzone.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-mercury-retrograde/)

Every time I start to notice communication issues, it tends to be one of the mercury in retrograde periods. Like with my zodiac sign characteristics, I do not understand how this happens every single stinking time, but it does: mercury goes in retrograde, and communication with others plummets. 

Lately, I have had a heck of a time dealing with mail delivery. I tried Blue Apron’s home meal delivery service and they messed up my delivery date three times. Communication with them to resolve this was maddening and ineffective. Then, Hello, Fresh sent a box that was delivered an hour after it was “guaranteed” to arrive. Follow up communication with them has been problematic.

I had a package from Amazon that simply never showed up. 

I had a box that I needed to mail to a family member. I am usually all over getting things into the mail, but this box I kept bringing back and forth to work or staring at while it sat on my counter at home, not getting mailed. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I just get the box into the mail?

Mercury in retrograde.

Then, I ordered a new travel backpack. I was so excited to get this thing. It was shipped from England. DHL sent a notice saying my signature was required for delivery. Seriously?! There’s no one home during the day to sign for it and it was too late to change the address to my work address, plus packages are hit or miss when mailed to me at work because my workplace is huge. It’s best not to have mail delivered there, because it’s likely I’ll never see it.

So I went online to add permissions to leave the box, and I printed out a signature release to leave in the lobby of my building. I eagerly checked for status updates online. The box was out for delivery. Yay!

Then, the status changed to something vague about it being “with the courier.” I called. They said the currier was “overburdened” so my package was rescheduled for the next day. What the heck is that?! That's a thing that can happen? You go out with it on the truck, you don’t come back with it on the truck. Right? 

Mercury in retrograde. Sigh.

Luckily, mercury in retrograde is over for the time being ... until it happens again in December. My upcoming international trip was luckily, thankfully planned to coincidentally happen in between mercury in retrograde times. There is a good chance I will look to the heavens when planning future trips, too.