A Carafe, that is a Blind Glass

A kind in glass and a cousin, a spectacle and nothing strange a single hurt color and an arrangement in a system to pointing. All this and not ordinary, not unordered in not resembling. The difference is spreading.

-Gertrude Stein

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
petals on a wet, black bough.

-Ezra Pound

loafin'

this blog originally served as a place to write about my time living in Florence, Italy. now i plan on using it to unwind after work and make note of things i find interesting

where did the time go?

Being a pedestrian in Italy is not as dangerous a venture as it once seemed. When I first arrived in Florence I spent a lot of time waiting on the sidewalk for an appropriate gap between zooming cars to cross the street. Then I progressed to edging out into the street expecting the cars to slow down once they saw me hesitantly attempt to cross. But no, stalling on the periphery of the road only garners car horns, or with some of the more spirited drivers, an acceleration of their car so that it tears down the street at an even quicker rate edging me back to the sidewalk.
I can barely believe I leave in three days. Now, I’m accustomed to darting across a street with a car going full speed at me. There is an understanding between Italian drivers and pedestrian that neither slow down, you just make sure one of you is going fast enough to avoid crashing into the other. It’s a mini jolt of adrenaline to confidently strut into a road and know that as long as I’m visible, the zipping mopeds, bikes, or cars won’t hit me. It is just the way things are in Italia. This habit however will not be brought back to America, because I know drivers in the States are not used to this pedestrian dance. If I attempt to dash out in the street of merica, careless of crosswalks, I would probably be hit by a large SUV, which by the way are non-existent in Italy.

un altro giro di giostra

"One doesn't come to Italy for niceness, one comes for life"

“The well-known world had broken up, and there emerged Florence, a magic city where people thought and did the most extraordinary things”

-A Room with a View

hospital de San Pau

designed by Catalan Modernisme architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner in the early 1900s. This building complex was only about a ten minute walk away from the hostel I stayed at. Incredible!

la boqueria

central market of barcelona