Just Follow the Duck

So, tonight as I was walking home I saw this lady carrying an umbrella with a duck handle; she was holding it up in the air to lead her tour group, and I had the urge to follow the duck, but I refrained and instead ran home so my toes wouldn't freeze into ice cubes.

I think the temperature dropped at least 15 degrees celsius just in the last three days. I'm not even lying. I haven't warmed up since it first got cold, but last night I did discover how to turn on the heat in my apartment, and then I curled up under the covers and slept all warm and cozy. So, I suppose I have warmed up...once...last night.

Perhaps you are wondering what was the reason I braved the cold this evening and almost lost my toes. Well, it was a pretty darn good reason. Today, 4 novembre 2006 is the 40th anniversary of the flood in Florence, and during a quick read of The Florentine I discovered that this evening at 19:00 they were going to illuminate the Arno River at Ponte Vecchio. So, I went, cameras in gloved hands, wearing two pairs of socks and four layers.


Aside from the frigid temperatures the days lately have been just about perfect. Not even in terms of weather, but also in terms of my lazy activity. Wednesday we had no class, and I thought I was going to get to go olive picking, but alas, the olives just weren't ripe. So, I slept in and went to my cafe instead. Then I decided to go walking leisurely about the city. I came to the San Lorenzo market and browsed the many stalls (since they were actually open) and ended up buying a hat. The people selling them were really nice, and I ended up having a conversation with an American lady who knew the guy who makes the hats. Then this other lady who was working at the stall too started helping me pick out the hat. It was just an adventure of sorts walking through the market on a cold afternoon buying a brown fuzzy hat.

I wore the brown fuzzy hat yesterday morning on the way to Lucca until the sun had been up long enough that I didn't need it anymore. Lucca I liked...about as much as I like the brown fuzzy hat. It's a small town in Tuscany an hour and a half from Florence with its city wall still intact. There's even a moat. (And apparently a comics and games festival the first weekend of November). Just so you know, I crossed the moat, and I biked the entire city wall. And to top it off, my bike had a bell that sounded like the bell on a mailman bike. I'm not sure I've actually ever seen a mailman bike, but if I did, I'm sure the bell on it would sound exactly like the one on the bike I rode around the city wall of Lucca.

We finished the day out by eating bucceleta (I think that's what it was called) and drinking cioccolata calda. Then we rode the train home, and I bought soup at the Standa and watched the Office with Laura.

I have no complaints, not even about the cold, because I have a blue pashmina and a brown fuzzy hat, and now I know how to turn on the heat in my apartment.

Positively splendid.