Lately I’ve been preoccupied with saving money. Besides some new (ridiculous) penny-pinching strategies, this brainstorming brought me to the concept of value in my mind-mapping. Never before have I valued having a heavy pocketful of change as much as I do here. But in all seriousness, how do we apply value? How do these rules or tendencies vary from person to person or culture to culture? And particularly relevant to Florence, what pieces of history deserve to be preserved?
Visiting Volterra was a refreshing escape from the ever-present gray drizzle that’s been hanging around Florence (which will apparently continue into next week). I was really drawn to the vibrant colors and textures of the old Etruscan city. Not even the clotheslines were exempt from displaying punchy hues. The beautiful weather encouraged the inner hippie in me and I walked around with a daisy chain around my head the rest of the day. It warranted some strange looks from people but I found that they were usually followed by a smile. A woman working at an alabaster store said it reminded her of Botticelli’s Primavera. Walking back to the bus stop, a man glanced at me as he and his girlfriend passed, whispered something in her ear and she took a quick peek back when she thought I wasn’t looking. Strangely enough, it didn’t bother me being stared at. It felt nothing like being in Florence and being judged as an American and a tourist.
I probably wouldn’t have noticed that couple on my way back to the bus stop if it hadn’t been for my newly heightened people-watching skills. I’ve found myself observing the way people interact with one another in their daily rituals—taking a walk on Sunday afternoon, sharing a hot chocolate with your granddaughter, perusing the flea market each week. Sometimes it’s hard to capture these quick little exchanges without feeling like a creeper but I’ve found a nice pair of dark sunglasses can help a lot.
As painstaking as it was to load this post, flickr is being even more excruciatingly slow, but the pictures are on their way!
