a document of days

My trip to Florence, Italy in late June was such an interesting one. It was the first time I'd ever traveled alone in a foreign country and without much knowledge of the Italian language. Actually, I have the basics down - I can make it clear that I speak English and I can order a complete dinner without one word of English spoken either way. I also know random words like:

carta = card (if I didn't have cash I would ask if they took 'carta')
uscita = exit (as a firefighter's daughter the importance of this word is ingrained in my very being)

I thought I knew the word for peach, after all, I ordered a peach gelato, but it wasn't until I told my mother that I placed my order completely in Italian that she informed me that I had actually ordered a FISH gelato. Pesce, peche. Is it really that different?

I traveled by train from Verona and arrived in Florence by noon on a Friday. I exited the train station completely unaware of the fact that I had gotten off at the wrong station. It was Florence, but the directions I had to the hotel obviously did not apply. After walking for quite some time with the determined expression of a woman who knew where she was and where she was going, I finally hailed a cab (a man sitting on a park bench was becoming interested in this 'determined woman' who had passed him four times and OBVIOUSLY didn't know where she was or where she was going.)

My time there was really great... and as I expressed in an early entry, a culinary inspiration. My favorite place in Florence was the Mercato Centrale.