Thursday, November 15, 2007

Fare la Spesa a Firenze

I've never lived in a city the size of Florence before. It's not that large, but more so than any place I've lived. Tourism here is pretty much a phenomenon of epic proportions, and without a doubt the crux of the regional economy. With that in mind, consider that we live about 100-200 meters from the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. Yeah, it's a bit crowded.

Because we live right in the center, we get the brunt of the crowding as well as the ridiculous prices at grocery stores. To circumvent this we take l'autobus (pronounce bus like boos) to a store further from our apartment, where the prices are much saner. The buses here are crazy by default. Not by design, but by consequence of Florentine traffic and the multitude of tourists. Stack that on a trip with 4 heavy bags of groceries stuffed between Italian leather boots, bus seats, mumbling immigrants and stranieri (like me), and you find yourself in a veritable inferno. Dante would have written another chapter.

Fortunately this particular trip is being offset by the stunning Tuscan sunset I'm watching right now :-).

2 comments:

The journey said...

Question: (yes say it like Dwight would.)
Have you been to Dante's church yet? It is plain but wonderful.

Di Mackey said...

You need to do a time-out in Belgium, just to appreciate how delicious your frustrations and irritations are in a country with soul :)

There, did that help ... or not at all?