The Italians have a great sense of fun and humor; that no one can deny! It really helps an expat to “get it” if you can understand the language.

I needed to get some passport pix taken for the application for the permission to stay card required of everyone with my type of long-term Visa. I crossed #1 with the Chicago Italian Consulate, you know, the one that took 104 days to complete.

Now that I’m in the country, I have to submit another application for the card referenced in the first paragraph above.

So off I go to a kiosk in the center of town to get the photos. Outside the kiosk they advertise all the reasons why you might want to pay 2Euro to use their kiosk. I took my pictures and while I was waiting for them to develop, I perused the sign. It’s hilarious!

I supply a translation below in English for my readers. Read it and smile!

I like living in a place where you find poetry written by contemporary people plastered to exterior walls of the city. Heck, I even like the graffiti.

Translated into English it reads: The hot air fills with dry thunder. I miss a me that never existed.

I like living in a place where I can walk daily by a multitude of doors that, in any one specific instance, would bring you to a stop. They are so plentiful in Italy that really stopping and seeing them becomes difficult. They are just a part of the built environment, like the sound of church bells throughout the days and nights.

But look at the beauty of the wood and the ironwork on this fabulous door. It is magnificent in its own way and yet it is just one of many thousands in Florence alone.

And then double it!

I like living in a place where lemon trees in huge ceramic pots are wrapped during winter, allowing the plants to survive so that they can blossom and bloom and bear fruit to decorate the coming spring, summer and fall. Winter is a small sacrifice for a plant that glories in three seasons. This is just an average alleyway between several apartment and villas in the center of Florence.

I like living here. I’d even say I love living here. I’m so grateful to be here and the long wait only makes me appreciate it more!

And people in the US ask me why I want to live in Italy! Boh!

Voila! Eccoci!

Italians have a phrase that describes figuring out the ins and outs and the ways to get by in life. I love it!

 It is l’arte d’arrangiarsi and I practice it daily.

Wandering around my new neighborhood in Florence, I feel I am definitely in the right place at the right time! I won’t tell you where exactly, but I’m living a 5 minute walk from the world famous Arno river and in an area bounded by streets named the following:

Via Giotto

Via Orcagna

Via Cimabue

Via Arnolfo

Via Ghirlandaio

Via Fra Giovanni Angelico

Yep, I’m in the right place for an art historian

I’ve only been back in Florence for a couple of days, but when I saw this caution on my phone I had to laugh. Truer words could not be spoken! It’s true for Google maps and a lot of other things.

Heaven can wait! I found my paradise on earth, in Italy, specifically Florence!

Freshly pressed pomegranate juice. My favorite beverage on planet earth! In my favorite eatery in Florence, certainly in Tuscany, maybe in Italy!

As you can see by watching the barrista press the fruit, it takes a lot of physical strength to make this elixir of the gods!

I’m late in posting this crazy American painting from the Swope museum in Terre Haute. I have a special connection to this admittedly weird work of art and maybe someday, I’ll explain why.

Here’s to you, Saint Nicholas.

Cross over the Alps and paradise appears! The weather conditions change with every trip and it is always beautiful.

Below, just outside Florence the clouds broke. This is January in Italy.

I’ll pray for you while I’m gone.