Noteworthy in Pieve di Teco 10/14/22

• Since I don’t have my own herb garden here I’m constantly on the lookout for places to subtly snitch a sprig or two of things for cooking without having to go buy them at the store. Today I hit the jackpot and found a tiny little public park full of rosemary bushes. Before now I’ve been taking from a giant healthy bush that has plenty to spare but is very much not mine to take. Up a driveway, clearly in someone’s front yard, near the road, in very obvious view from the owner’s window… It’s been a dead of night or send your 9 year old on a mission sort of thievery. And today I learned that I can give up my life of crime and just pick it in the park!

• I’m on day four with my suitcase lost by the airline. Luckily I packed a few things in my carry on but my wardrobe is definitely lacking, as well as my hair care routine and my ability to control my allergies. Yesterday I finally broke down and bought a jacket because I was freezing and made the rude discovery that I am not shaped for Italian clothes. Apparently, if you’ve got shoulders like a Viking and “birthing hips” you are supposed to be six feet tall. The first shop I went to had beautiful things but not one of them would fit my linebacker shoulders. The salesman politely told me I must be a swimmer. Ha. I ended up a store that sells some Pacific Northwest style jackets- polar fleece, down, Gortex, that kind of thing. I tried on so many coats and seriously, the ones that fit through the shoulders and hips were size extra large and the sleeves were six inches too long. I ended up paying too much money for something ugly that fits fine as long as I don’t try to zip it up. If I’m spending any length of time here I will need to make trips to Germany to shop because I’m thinking I’ll have better luck there. Sigh.

• I was seduced by Italian footwear. Even after the jacket humiliation, I refuse to accept the fact that I’m pretty much a nonna without any nipoti, though it’s pretty darn close to the truth. Because of the lost suitcase fiasco I’m determined to start leaving clothes here, including shoes. There is a giant shoe store about 15 minutes from town called Scarpe & Scarpe (Shoes & Shoes) where I found the BEST sandals in the summer so I thought I’d see what I could find to buy and leave behind. What did I leave with? I’ll tell you what I left with, some shoes I have no business wearing, that’s what. There were aisles of practical boots. Doc Martens knock offs mostly. That’s what I should’ve gotten. I tried on like 15 pairs but the ones I decided needed to be mine are these:

Beautiful? Yes. But what do you even wear these with? I’m guessing it’s nothing I own. Will I be able to walk in them? On uneven stone or brick streets? I’d love to believe I’m the picture of grace and sophistication but I trip walking down my own driveway in Dansko clogs so, no. So stupid. They could possibly be a good way to meet people though. I throw on these babies with my mom jeans (not the mom jeans that are in style, but actual mom jeans) head out and see how long it takes to sprain an ankle. Someone will surely come to my rescue.

• The bar down the street that was packed full of people drinking at happy hour time blasted “Baby Shark” loud enough for the whole street to hear so that the owner could come out and dance with a two year old. No one was bothered in the slightest.