At a certain time of life,
when you've seen so much,
paid, paid, paid the admission fees,
waited in lines,
been scanned for weapons,
jostled by crowds,
shushed by guards,
told to put the camera away,
check your bag, don't touch,
not to sit/stand there, move along,
been shown out through the gift shop,
and told that no, there is no toilet. . .
you get to the point where you
just want to relax
and decide where to eat next.
Your mind can't intelligently process
the options for dining in Firenze
or even for grabbing a quick bite.
Restaurants are one thing, but
caffés, street stands and gelaterie comprise
an equally overwhelming universe.
The sluggish retail economy,
the shift to online buying of stuff, and
the fact that much of the same
merchandise is now available
at home/everywhere, so a 'why buy
and have to lug. . . ?' mentality
has created the situation
where primarily new eating and
drinking establishments are what's
opening here, as at home, everywhere.
It's a feast, an orgasm, and indigestion
all at once.
You are dismayed again and again
that one can eat only so much, so often,
and that therefore so many luscious looking
things must go untasted.
The FOOD here is something that you
cannot find at home, so if you want
to enjoy it, you need to enjoy it here.
I am not saying the food here
is necessarily better ( it is), but that
it is just different.
It tastes different, it looks different; maybe it's the water,
maybe the climate, maybe the grass the
critters feed on, the soil, the oil,
the flour processing,
I don't know what.
But there is a certain Italian/Tuscan
taste to the food that is best experienced locally.
I sense food here is handled differently,
more lovingly, regarded seriously, and not
just for the economics of it.
A fresh cabbage is something to
marvel at in the outdoor market or as
something cooked and presented on
your plate at the restaurant; you can sense
the close connection of the thing to
it's very recent life in the ground.
The meats are taken very seriously,
chops, roasts, ribs, slabs of beef,
slices from tiny to giant sausage rounds,
some 12" across and displayed with the
hanging hams of all sorts
at the macellerie. Meat is big here.
Pasta, pasta everywhere, on every menu,
in every market, take away place: fresh
pasta, sauced or not, when not, a white
floury dusting coating the surface,
ravioli, tortellini, pici, penne, maltagliata,
tagliatelle, manicotti, all of it you've ever seen,
or not.
The vegetables are either fresh, or are often
overcooked by instructed standards, but
nonetheless, deliciously full of flavor: spinach, broccoli, rabe.
Today at lunch I was served a huge purple artichoke
so fresh and delicate that I was able to
peel the leaves and eat it raw, dipping the leaves
in green oil seasoned with salt.