Pictures from Tuscany. Coffee, coffee and dolce vita

16.04.2015 TRAVEL Italy

I had an impression in Florence or Siena that cafés are talking to me: Dolce vita, Ilona. Drink coffee, close your laptop and talk to the bartender. Yeah sure, but I have to take care of the projects, send some emails.

Where could I hide with my computer and not to look like a workaholic?

Finding a café with a seat described as a “workplace” was harder than in Barcelona or Madrid.

Bloggers-freelancers took me to one of these, I’ve found some recommendations on the “Girl in Florence” blog.

Freelancing in Florence is getting more and more popular, most cafés have wifi but if you want to stretch out with a computer don’t sit with just one espresso.

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“I definitely drink too much coffee” I say to some Italian guy.

“Ilooona, Iloona, (the Italian accent emphasizing the long ‘o’) you’re in Italy. There’s no such thing as too much coffee here.”

I felt filled with coffee but when in the smallest, in the least representative café they serve you such a wonderful espresso then what can you do? You have to drink.

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So I drank espresso, macchiato, cappuccino (It must be remembered to order it before 11:00, later it’s faux pas).

“Officially it’s faux pas, but I drink cappuccino all day. I mean I drink it at home when no one sees that it’s past 11:00” – said an Italian woman I met. “Me too” – her friend added hesitantly.

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I missed nourishing breakfasts in Italy.

I love celebrating mornings, a coffee, good food. Here I got a croissant only.

On the other hand, I think it’s a good incentive to celebrate evenings with friends.

You meet with friends, all the tiredness from the day leaves you, you eat, drink, laugh, talk. The next morning you’re too tired to eat a breakfast. You just drink espresso and wait until next meeting.

It makes sense.

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I was also mistook for a culinary blogger.

Strange feeling when in the middle of a shop-bazaar in Siena (Consorzio Agrario Di Siena) a man puts in front of me a plate full of Tuscan charcuterie, cheeses, bread, then he brings a bottle of wine, pours it into a glass and says: If you need anything I’m somewhere around.

Wait a moment, please don’t leave and tell me what it is. The mister told and got back to his work and I was standing in the middle of this shop-bazaar sipping the wine.

However, the weirdest thing was when a man came to me and started to take pictures of me with a tablet. Me, with this wine and the plate.

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I was enchanted by the charming streets in Siena and Florence. Beautiful cities of Tuscany. I wanted to get lost but the habit of looking at Google Maps was stronger.

Walking down the streets in Florence I imagined that I meet Tom Riley as an “artist, inventor, fencer, lover, dreamer and idealist”.

I mean 25 years old Leonardo da Vinci whom Riley played in the series “Da Vinci Demons”. The series is set in Florence.

Tom didn’t appear but I pleased myself with the semblance of Leonardo in an interactive museum, recently opened with constructions based on the master’s projects.

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The first pizza during this trip I tastes with the guys from the Visit Tuscany .

” We will show you the pubs where people from Florence spend their time.”

Local beer, pizza, underground climate little resemblance to the elegance of Florence. Authenticity without tourist poses and… I like it .

And now I know that not all Italians like wine.

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The time of coming back has come. I was walking through Florence with my backpack. I stopped on a bridge somewhere outside a city center to take a breath.

The sun, silence, I’m looking down. What I see?

Some fellows have brought a table, chairs and lounged comfortably at the river, with the sun shining and they’re playing cards. Just like that, in the middle of the day. Who would forbid them to do this? Beautiful.