Day trippers

After a long trip out of Florence yesterday we are tired enough to take it easy today but food beckons. The local market is a stones throw away and a must visit. All around the coved market are shops selling belts,jackets handbags and all manner of leather goods. Some of the handbags are well both a buy but the husband has me on a tight budget and considering I don't use handbags all that much I do not protest too much but as ogling is free I indulge happily. The market inside opens at eight thirty in the morning and we have our shopping lists at the ready. The first thing we do is to take a quick walk around the place,the husband makes a quick calculation of the prices ,converts it into Indian currency and decided if it's a good buy or not. I simply indulge my sense of taste and visual appeal. I drool over the fish. The anchovies and sardines and shinning their eyes bright,I want to pick them up and cook them but move on. There are many cheese shops but our hotel owne ( a nice Italian nona) has told us that the age of the cheese will be displayed and we must ask for a taste. There is one shop which does exactly this. It's surprising how I can understand perfectly well what the man is telling me in rapid fire Italian when the subject is food. Is it greed or some inner communication between lovers of food. I trust my instincts on this. He cuts thin slices for me to taste and I eat and enjoy. The husband meanwhile is busy doing the maths in his head. Ready to move on to the next store he cannot understand my need to chat with the Italian shopkeepers in sign language. Mercifully for him the owners son arrives and actually speaks English. All the cheese bought,we move over to the mushroom shop. Recommended by the cheese seller this shop is full of porcini mushrooms fresh and dried,the prices come in ranges but is decided on the bases of stems,caps or mixed. The husband would like to understand the science and economics behind such classifications but for me porcini mushrooms have stolen my taste buds,I want them caps or stems or roots. How does it matter when I can't get them in India. It's a taste for which I will happily travel the world so after much talking we get ourselves a mix just to be on the safe side. Next stop for spices. Spices in Italy when we come from the land of spices you may well ask but these are interesting. Mixed spices for pasta. Now that's something I can see much use for considering our love of all things Italian. Picante is an useful word I have learnt so when the word combined with my brown skin gets the message across perfectly. The shopkeeper happy at the business I give him offers truffle in oil on a cracker. I eat happily,the husband refuses politely. He offers us amaretto biscuits but that I refuse to eat. I simply can't stand it but with our bags now full we are ready to leave. The lovely tomato sauce called passata has to be left behind as the bottle is too heavy....well you win some you loose some. We head back to the hotel and I tell the husband that we simply have to see Michelangelo s David . What I don't tell him is that the lines can be punishing. Now unfortunately I have three things on my wish list and not enough time to do it. I want to clime the 400 steps to the dome of the duomo cathedral,I also want to climb the bell tower and go the the piazza Michelangelo but if I have to choose I need to see David. Our hotel manager tells us it's next to impossible to go there t such short notice but the husband loves a challenge and for that I am greatful . So we set off and find the lines snaking into the streets. The husband does a quick calculation ( it's all about numbers with him) and decided that based on the movement of the lines,it should take us an hour to get a ticket.he then suggests we have lunch. Determined not to miss out on David ( the husband can imagine what the fuss is all about,left to himself he would rather see the only David in our family expected later in the month at our home...a grand nephew) . I use all the charm at my disposal and some logic to let him know that the lines can only get longer so better sense prevails and we wait. The wait goes on for two hours in the noon sun. It's hot it's humid but we wait,and finally we are in. David stand right at the end of a corridor a majestic figure in marble. His hands are those of a young man though he is a boy in the bible. I am near certain he was clothed in the bible after all shepherd boys don't roam around the countryside naked do they ?. But this is a masterpiece,this is Michelangelo s interpretation of David so I put aside all those thought of mine and concentrate instead of the piece itself. How he sculpted the veins and the nails and every muscle of the body from a piece of marble is what makes so many. Ill ion people gape in wonder. To think that such creativity existed in times when one had to crave every little bit with ones hands. I have a good look and move on to all the other paintings in the gallery. It was well worth the wait for me and we exit quickly for lunch and after a good meal we get back to the hotel so my excellent map reader can get a good rest,ready to face the evening ahead. I am still working on ways to get him to agree on the other two things on my list....time will tell