Feste a Firenze.

I love moments like this. I was literally running from one appointment to the next, and I could not resist stopping in my tracks to capture the beautiful tramonto (sunset) as it began to fall upon the early evening sky.

I also enjoy walking on streets I have never taken before because I find surprises around every corner. Most of the restaurants and workshops have metal gates over them, so you never know what is hiding behind it until you happen to be walking past during their opening hours. I kind of lost my way and then the Duomo appeared through the archway with another great backdrop of the evening sky.

This is the view from my window at school. I was leaning down to plug in my phone charger, and looked up - surprise! I had never seen it from this angle before.

The view from the courtyard of my school.

Firenze during the holidays. This is the approach to Piazza Repubblica from Via Corso. The busier pedestrian streets are strung with lights. It's not quite the same as the lights on Fifth Avenue and the surrounding areas in NYC, but it is charming in its own Florentine way. It is actually reminiscent of Little Italy. I will post more photos as I take them.. but the lights, like everything else Italian, seem to have a mind of their own. They are not illuminated daily. I have a feeling it might have something to do with the obscene electricity rates.

I spent Thanksgiving with American and Italian friends. Many of you were curious as to how they do it here so I took a photo to share with you. First course was a yellow squash soup, second course (pictured) was stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables, stuffing and cranberry preserves, and dessert was pumpkin pie with a scoop of cinnamon gelato. It was delicious but... not quite the same. I will have the real thing when I come home as our version is waiting for me in the freezer (grazie mille, mom!)

Ben and Jerry's just appeared last week in the Piazza Duomo. I have mixed feelings about it being situated in the very center of Firenze, but I did not think twice before venturing out in the torrential rain to get a little scoop of home last night with my girlfriends. I love my Vivoli gelato but I also love Chunky Monkey (and the new Chocolate Macademia). I am not sure if it was my imagination or if the Italian version does taste a lot more like gelato. It could also just be because I was eating it inches away from the Duomo which by association will make just about anything taste more Italian.

In just a few weeks I will head back to NY for a visit. I will return to Firenze for New Years, and am moving into a new apartment and neighborhood in January. As you can tell, I have not had enough of this place yet... in fact I think I have just barely scratched the surface.

Vintage fabric and the not-so-simple tote.

As you know most of my free time is spent in vintage fairs and antique markets rummaging through piles of clothing and findings. I bought some great antique gold thread that I am going to use to do decorative hand-stitching. I also love that these threads are still in their original paper packaging. The one pictured above was manufactured in France and was going to be imported in NY, but I guess it never made it there.

I found this great striped textile remnant recently and thought, ooh, I will make a simple bag and attach this fabric as the handles. This simple idea turned into a not-so-simple project which turned into a week's worth of work, further proving that nothing is ever simple when it comes to handmade accessories.

I was able to execute the pattern quickly (after I messed it up, twice) since is a simplified version of the earlier satchel I made, without all of the hardware and passantini.

Instead of just stitching down the fabric to the leather, I attached the fabric to salpa, then backed it with leather, folded the leather onto the edges of the fabric (are you still with me?), folded the handles in half around the shoulder part, stitched them together, and then stitched the flat part of the handles onto the bag. There is pezzatura (seams) of leather on the backside of the straps, since it runs the entire length which measures over 140cm. Every time I tried to "scarnire" to eliminate the bulk that is created when attaching the pieces of leather to each other, I sliced right through it since I had made it very thin... which meant back to cutting, passing it through the spazzatrice (to diminish the overall thickness of the original skin), and then scarnire on the machine (to elminate the thickness just around the edges, to prepare it for wrapping). You might not be able to tell the scale in the photo above, but the bag is approximately 50cm x 50cm (roughly 20 inches). I am a fanatic when it comes to the length of shoulder straps, so trust me when I tell you they are just right.

When I was nearly finished, I decided it should have a zipper...

Olive, mele e foglie.

For those of you who have been to my former office in NY, this photo will look familiar to you. I took the same photo five years ago and had it prominently displayed on my wall for years. I was visiting Firenze with my mom and stumbled across the school where I am studying today. It was the same time of year and the city had the same autumn glow, as the leaves (foglie) were beginning to change. Walking past this gate every day reminds me how happy I am to be here, five years later making that dream a reality.

I frequent the market at least three times a week. Of course now, my market friends know a lot more about my life. They have met my family, they ask about my nephew, I have met all of their children. They know how far I ran during my last run, the status of my bags at school, my favorite restaurants, the magazines I read and how I spend my weekends. They know what I like to eat and how I like to prepare it so they continue to give me new recipes and ideas. The apples (mele) are just perfect right now, so I could not resist taking a photo. Fuji and Staim are my favorites, and I still eat an apple every single day at around 11AM in school. Secchiona!

With the changing of the leaves comes "raccolta delle olive," and "estrazione," collection of olives and extraction of olive oil. I received the bottle pictured above from my friend Carlo who has an olive grove. The olive oil you see came to live approximately 36-48 hours before I received it. I stopped at the bakery downstairs on my way home to pick up Tuscan (saltless) bread to make bruschetta with my newest prized possession. Of course the moment I walked into my apartment I tore into the bread before I could even turn on the oven. I have never, ever, had such creamy robust olive oil in my entire life. Actually, there was one time on a mountain biking trip through Chianti when our group stopped at an olive laboratorio and we tasted fresh olive oil straight from the crock... that came very close!

It is my new Nutella (and I think you all know how I feel about Nutella). Thankfully I think it might be impossible to finish an entire bottle of olive oil in one sitting. I am trying to figure out a way to transport this back to NY so I can share this heavenly treat. I think I might forego all cosmetics and fill a ziplock bag with 3.4 ounce bottles of just olive oil. I am pretty good at the art of persuasion in the security line, thanks to days gone by when I used to carry red velvet cake home from business trips to North Carolina. I think with a flip of the hair and a smile the Italian security officers will even be a little more forgiving. The departure city and ingredients might change, but one thing remains the same: However delicious something might be, it is that much better when shared in the company of close friends and family. Even better, after it arrives in one piece after a journey of a few thousand miles.

Pazienza.

My hands hurt today but it obviously won't stop me from typing.

Remember this bag, the one I wanted to finish before my last trip to NY? I finished it today. Okay, okay, I know many of you know I have piles of unfinished projects sitting around... in NY, now in Italy, there might even be some left over in Ithaca, New York and Harrison, Maine. I have most likely left scraps of unfinished projects in every city in which I've set foot but part of the reason I am here is to slow it down, concentrate, and finish what I start.

Sewing through eight layers of camel skin is not easy an easy feat, but I actually find it quite therapeutic when I can concentrate. I only punctured my fingers twice, once with the puntorollo and once with the hand sewing needle. As you might remember from my first bag, I have to puncture the leather with the puntorollo and then pull two needles through the path it created in the layers of leather. I had pre-punctured the two panels with the sewing machine, so all of the holes are lined up. It takes some precision and a lot of patience to get the puntorollo to pass through the hole, through the additional layers of leather, and back through the corresponding hole. This also takes its toll on your fingers, as it requires great strength to pass a needle with a blunt tip through so many layers.

And here is the finished product: A one-shoulder backpack that can also be slung across the body with a bandana lining.

I have just a few more weeks of school to go...