Buon Giorno
Today was a most tiring day. It is unwise to estimate that google maps are accurate...they are not. I started out with my directions to Ikea this morning at 9:30 and believing the google directions I figured it would take me 1/2 to 45 minutes at the most. The street that Ikea is on is really S. Nobel and not what is listed and what I wrote down. I was definitely headed in the right direction and as the street ended abruptly...they do here all the time..it turned into another name so I stopped a gentleman to ask. He did not understand me and when I showed him the piece of paper with Ikea on it he smiled and said it is a long long way. Well I have walked 1 1/2 hours...how much longer can it be. So he directed me to another street and off I went. I walked for another 1/2 hour and stopped into a computer store where I found a printer I liked. The handsome clerk smiled from ear to ear when I told him where I was going....he asked me if I had a car. No just feet. He suggested I keep going down this street and then ask someone. Okee dokee...off I go. I finally stopped into a perfume store and thank goodness the girl spoke English. She told me that no one would understand what I was asking because in Italian...Ikea is pronounced Eh keh ah.
She told me to go to the bar next door and buy a bus ticket then turn left on the street I was on to Via Baracca and catch either the 29 or 30 bus. Okay I haven't been on a bus before so this should be interesting. No #29 on Saturdays so bus#30 is it. After about five or six stops I see Ikea and the Ikea sign but the bus continues around the corner ... too late should have gotten off. So I think to myself well it should make a loop soon and come back....wrong. It went so far out into the middle of nowhere and was not heading back to Firenze. So avoiding panic I went up to the bus driver as she was stopped at a bus stop and said Ikea...not in Italian. She looked at me like I was some kind of alien. I knew then I was lost. She started yelling and waving that Ikea was across the other countryside...so I asked to get off. Here I was in the middle of frickin nowhere and wondered how the heck I was going to get home. So I crossed the street and saw that the #30 bus would come back this way. A bus came and I got on...oops it wasn't the 30 it was #35....the only street name I could remember was Baracca...so I got off when I saw something familiar. I crossed that street and when to the bus stop to read the sign and recognized that a 30 bus would take me to Grigolo and that is where I needed to get off so I waited and a bus came...by this time I didn't know if my ticket was valid. I just stayed at the back and counted how many times the bus stop and then got off after the fifth count...no one bothered me for a bus ticket. There it was....the Ikea sign. I was never so relieved to see Ikea in my life. So when I got there this lovely greeter helped me with where I would catch the free Ikea bus back to the Stazione. I had fun shopping ... of course bought more than I could carry so that was a fun sight to watch as I manouvered through the narrow streets back to my apartment. Ahhh finally home.
As I was unlocking the huge 20ft door to my apartment and this man approached me...he was short and kinda cute and I thought he was a neighbour. So I said buona sera with my big huge smile. He only spoke Italian and I understood what he was asking. Wanted to know if I was a tourist and I said no a student of art...I can get some Italian words out. Then stupidly I told him which school...well I figure he knew where I lived so might as well know where I go to school. He was enamoured with my smile and he said I exude this positive attitude. So he kissed me on each cheek like the Italians do and asked me my name...very taken aback by the gesture I asked his... which is Luca. Then he asked me for coffee and I said no grazie...had no clue how to say...too fricking tired. So he kissed my hand and off he went. That was the weirdest thing. Anyhow folks...instead of getting my butt pinched I got kissed!
With my luck he might be the local stalker. Laughing out loud now. Actually he seemed very genuine and very friendly. Probably a lonely old guy who likes to hit on single foreigners. Today was my day! When I see him next if he is still enamoured I will tell him I am sposata...married. The one thing he did say was that I live in a good neighbourhood and it is very quiet. I understood most of what he said in Italian..I just couldn't respond. I was glad to be home.
It was great to get some new things for my apartment to make it more my own.
I need to go back...but definitely will not walk there. Till next time ... caio.
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