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Or a morning in the life, anyway. This installment is mostly about Siesta, our Miniature Snauzer. Why, you ask? Honestly, it's because I'm so impressed by the impact a 7-kilogram critter can have on its environment. Born in San Casciano, a gorgeous area in the Chianti just outside Florence, Siesta became part of our family 3+ years ago. As puppies are, she was incredibly cute (and of course in our opinion she was even cuter than all other puppies, but that goes without saying). The thing I didn't realize about having a dog is that because of the sheer number of times you need to go traipsing around the neighborhood waiting for her to pee and poop, you invariably interact to an even greater extent with the people that make up the area within which you live. Socially it opens an incredible amount of doors. If you move to a foreign country and then do this, as we did, the impact is even greater because your status as a "foreigner" begins to more quickly fade, day-by-day, interaction-by-interaction. All of the sudden neither of us are quite so strange to the other as we once seemed. I mean, my dog pees and poops just like their dog pees and poops. I have to deal with it just like they have to deal with it. It's becoming quite clear that the familiarity of the shared minutia that makes up each of our lives is what inevitably bonds us together. Of course it helps if your dog is cute as can be, which Siesta is. The process may take a bit longer if your dogs tendency is to go for the jugular... As you may or may not have seen elsewhere on this site, our studio is located in the Oltrarno district, Florence's "Left Bank." Specifically, our area is known as the SoPo (south of Ponte Vecchio). This area has been the artisan quarter since the renaissance and beyond. Each morning Siesta and I stroll over to a cafe that has been owned and operated by two sisters since not too long after World War 2 (Was that the war-to-end-all-wars or was that the first one? Anyway...). While I have my caffe macchiato, Siesta is given her usual morning treat by one of the sisters while others in the cafe coo and aww about how cute she is standing on her hind legs at the bar. Guardate il piccolo cliente!, I hear (Look at the little customer!) Vuoi un caffè? (Would you like a coffee?). Ahh... Life in Siesta's shadow... |  |
Immediately after, almost like clockwork, we walk a block over and Siesta takes a poop on the street where Mona Lisa was born. Yep, that Mona Lisa. That's one of my favorite things about being here; History isn't stored only in museums, it's all around us, it's real, we're steeped in it. I doubt I will ever lose my fascination with that... After Siesta's morning constitutional we walk the two more blocks over to our studio. This is when the morning greeting festivities begin. Our street, Via Toscanella, is very much a neighborhood street consisting of the folks that live all around us and above us and the artigiani who have their studios here. Siesta brings out the best in almost all of them. She is absolutely Thrilled to see everyone and is literally hardly able to contain herself. She races from person to person and dances at their feet, elated to be with them again. As you can imagine, this makes her quite popular. People yell greetings to her from the windows overlooking the street. People get off their bikes to come over and say hi. The number of visitors she has in a day truly amazes me! My social life pales by comparison. Old-school local guys are especially entranced by her. All of them know her by name and she is equally thrilled to see each of them. Siesta is especially fond of Roberto and Stefano. Roberto is what I call the Mayor of Toscanella. He has lived in this area for 50+ years. When I first met him he told me that when he was young he moved to our area from San Frediano, as if it were a major move. I can walk to San Frediano in about 15 minutes. I still can only understand about half of what Roberto says, as is often the case with the old-school guys. However, having said that, the two of us have nonetheless built a pretty nice relationship over the years. Of course a lot of that is due to the presence of Siesta, with whom Roberto interacts throughout the entirety of the day. The amount of joy Siesta brings into this guys life day-in and day-out is truly a beautiful thing to see. Two thumbs up, girl! Stefano, on the other hand, is a much more modern type of guy. He uses the internet, for one! For decades he has been working right here in our quartiere as an antique lantern maker, specializing in star lanterns that are truly spectacular (You can view some of his work on their site: www.bieci.it). As you walk around this area you'll see his star lanterns hanging in many windows and outdoor areas - We have one in our window! Recently Siesta has become Stefano's apprentice, of sorts. For the first 45 minutes or so of every day she can be found spending time with Stefano and Fabrizio (Stefano's brother-in-law, with whom he works), keeping an eye on their handiwork and hoping for treats (Siesta is known as a bit of a prostituta per il pane, willing to do most anything for a piece of bread). Afterwards she parks herself out in front of our studio and keeps an eye on all of us... If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my Beadmakers Blog RSS feed!
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