I find myself doing a lot of deep breathing here in Florence. Sometimes it is when I am trying to talk to someone on the telephone who does not speak english. My italian, while a work in progress, is still very poor. Sometimes it is as I wait over 30 minutes at the post office to buy stamps as I look at the long line up of people and only two employees are working the postal section. Sometimes it is as I make my way through the 10s of thousands of tourists in the streets. Sometimes it is when I look at the bottoms of my feet at night and they are filthy black from walking around the city in flip flops. Sometimes it is after realizing that it will take me over an hour to walk to purchase an item and back, when in Canada I would have quickly driven to the store and been back in minutes.
In the spring I did a lot of deep breathing as literally hundreds of little red spiders were crawling on my terrace. No matter how many times I sprayed they would come back in droves in a couple of days. I have never seen anything like it. I do not do well with bugs. When I would come in after laying in the sun, or tending to my plants, the bottoms of my feet would literally be orange because as you step on these little pests they release a dye. Every night I would scrub the orange off my feet before going to bed. In frustration, I asked my italian friends about these pests. I was told, "Do not worry Elizabet, they will go as the heat comes. They will only last three weeks, be patient". So every day I just kept telling myself this will pass, breathe deep. Three weeks later they disappeared.
As the hot summer temperatures have come I have needed to have my windows open wide at night to catch a breeze. I love the windows here because they are so big. They go from hip height all the way up to the ceiling. One night as I laid in bed, and was enjoying the cool breeze on my face, I came to realize that the mosquitos enjoyed the open windows as much as me. I wonder if they all gathered outside of my window with one of them yelling, "Here we go boys, we have got a tourist who does not know to keep the windows closed". In the morning I woke up to 17 (I counted them) mosquito bites on my face. The mosquitos had enjoyed a buffet on my face and arms. At first I thought they were spider bites because there were just so many of them, and I had never experienced mosqutio bites like this before. I took apart my bed and vacuumed it and washed all the sheets. I went to the store to get insect spray and was told by a very kind woman that they were mosquito bites, not spider bites, and I needed to buy a little device called "vape". It looks like a plug-in air freshener. She told me to buy one for each room. I wondered how they could possibly work, but I listened to her advise. I now enjoy my windows open and there is not one mosquito in my apartment. I have since learned that everyone has vapes in their apartments. Even hotel rooms have them. I am left wondering why they do not have them in Canada, especially in cottage country where the mosquitos are so big they could carry you away. I just breathe deep telling myself that maybe I don't want to know what is in the vapes that make them work so well because if I knew maybe I would not use them, and I certainly do not want to wake up to a face covered in bites again.
As the hot summer temperatures have come I have needed to have my windows open wide at night to catch a breeze. I love the windows here because they are so big. They go from hip height all the way up to the ceiling. One night as I laid in bed, and was enjoying the cool breeze on my face, I came to realize that the mosquitos enjoyed the open windows as much as me. I wonder if they all gathered outside of my window with one of them yelling, "Here we go boys, we have got a tourist who does not know to keep the windows closed". In the morning I woke up to 17 (I counted them) mosquito bites on my face. The mosquitos had enjoyed a buffet on my face and arms. At first I thought they were spider bites because there were just so many of them, and I had never experienced mosqutio bites like this before. I took apart my bed and vacuumed it and washed all the sheets. I went to the store to get insect spray and was told by a very kind woman that they were mosquito bites, not spider bites, and I needed to buy a little device called "vape". It looks like a plug-in air freshener. She told me to buy one for each room. I wondered how they could possibly work, but I listened to her advise. I now enjoy my windows open and there is not one mosquito in my apartment. I have since learned that everyone has vapes in their apartments. Even hotel rooms have them. I am left wondering why they do not have them in Canada, especially in cottage country where the mosquitos are so big they could carry you away. I just breathe deep telling myself that maybe I don't want to know what is in the vapes that make them work so well because if I knew maybe I would not use them, and I certainly do not want to wake up to a face covered in bites again.
Just as I was enjoying my mosquito free apartment, and spider free terrace, along came these little green flying bugs. I have never seen a bug like this before. Every night they would swarm into the apartment, drawn to the light. As I sat at my computer I would have to shoo them away from the screen. Evening after evening I sat and watched my coffee table and dining room table become covered in literally hundreds of these little green flying bugs. I wondered what I would do as I could not keep my windows closed, but I also dreaded that every morning I had to vacuum up the hundreds of little corpses off of my tables. While I have been to Italy before, I had never experienced these swarms of green flying bugs. As I sat looking over at my coffee table covered in bugs I took a deep breathe and hoped that they would be like the little red spiders and suddenly disappear as quickly as they appeared. Sure enough the past three nights there has not been a bug on my table. All bad things here in Florence seem to pass, if I just have patience, breathe deep, and wait it out.
Yesterday I escaped the heat of the city and went to the little town of Fiesole, which is located in the hills above Florence. The views of Florence are spectacular. With a cool breeze blowing in my hair I sat on a bench in awe of what I was looking out at. On the bus on the way back to Florence two American couples travelling together asked me what I thought they had to absolutely see in the few days that they were in Florence, and where they should go for the very best food. As I talked about the treasures of Florence there was a moment when I was struck by the excitement in my voice. While I have been fortunate to travel to many places in the world, never have I so passionately loved a city as I do Florence; although New York is a close second.
My best friend here in Florence, Laura, thinks that I am a "clean freak" and have a touch of OCD. Obviously she has come to know me well. I tell her that this is the new "relaxed" me. She jokes that if she knew me before we would have had a friendship divorce. I don't understand why she does not see the logic in colour co-ordinatting a closet. She doesn't understand why one has to vacuum every other day. Lets just say that Laura does not mind a little clutter and doesn't rush to do dishes. There are also very good reasons why we affectionately call her "late Laura". Okay I may still be a little OCD, but I now can garden on a terrace ignoring spiders crawling at my feet, I can now sit and watch television on the computer with bugs swarming the screen, I can now deal with filthy black feet from city pollution, I can now leave my dishes for two days without doing them, I now wear wrinkled clothes because I don't have a dryer and walking, lots of walking, has just simply become a way of life for me......all after taking a deep breathe telling my crazy brain that these little things don't matter given how lucky I am to live in such a wonderful city.
As my friend Marcial was looking out my window today he said, "I love Florence in the summer". When I first arrived in Florence his advise to me was to let go of my North American way of life and expectations, because it is only when one does that can you come to love life in Florence. I now realize how right he was. It has taken a lot of deep breathing, and a lot of conscious letting go, but the end result is a passionate love affair with one of the most magnificent cities in the world.
Yesterday I escaped the heat of the city and went to the little town of Fiesole, which is located in the hills above Florence. The views of Florence are spectacular. With a cool breeze blowing in my hair I sat on a bench in awe of what I was looking out at. On the bus on the way back to Florence two American couples travelling together asked me what I thought they had to absolutely see in the few days that they were in Florence, and where they should go for the very best food. As I talked about the treasures of Florence there was a moment when I was struck by the excitement in my voice. While I have been fortunate to travel to many places in the world, never have I so passionately loved a city as I do Florence; although New York is a close second.
My best friend here in Florence, Laura, thinks that I am a "clean freak" and have a touch of OCD. Obviously she has come to know me well. I tell her that this is the new "relaxed" me. She jokes that if she knew me before we would have had a friendship divorce. I don't understand why she does not see the logic in colour co-ordinatting a closet. She doesn't understand why one has to vacuum every other day. Lets just say that Laura does not mind a little clutter and doesn't rush to do dishes. There are also very good reasons why we affectionately call her "late Laura". Okay I may still be a little OCD, but I now can garden on a terrace ignoring spiders crawling at my feet, I can now sit and watch television on the computer with bugs swarming the screen, I can now deal with filthy black feet from city pollution, I can now leave my dishes for two days without doing them, I now wear wrinkled clothes because I don't have a dryer and walking, lots of walking, has just simply become a way of life for me......all after taking a deep breathe telling my crazy brain that these little things don't matter given how lucky I am to live in such a wonderful city.
As my friend Marcial was looking out my window today he said, "I love Florence in the summer". When I first arrived in Florence his advise to me was to let go of my North American way of life and expectations, because it is only when one does that can you come to love life in Florence. I now realize how right he was. It has taken a lot of deep breathing, and a lot of conscious letting go, but the end result is a passionate love affair with one of the most magnificent cities in the world.
0 comments:
Post a Comment