Locals Only...

This picture's crap, but it's a small indication of how beautiful the moon was as I walked over the Arno a few minutes ago.

Today we took a break from the traveler routine and hung out with Don while Alexa's in Milan. We took 35 pounds of books to the Mailboxes Etc. that is just around the corner from Via Porcellana and shipped 'em home. Yes, we are freaks. We got the special "Lucy" rate because Don brought in their dream of a dog, Lucy. To tell you how great Lucy is, even Ira likes her. Yes, that's right, even notorious animal hater Ira likes Lucy.

Then we went off to the market to shop for tonight's meal. Alexa's back from her work trip with a few colleagues, and Don's going to cook up a storm. Here's a picture of Ira and Don discussing the fruit. We ended up with four pears to go with the cheese and a lot of Sicilian bitter oranges that have to be eaten to be believed. We're going to be eating Guinea fowl stuffed with sausage and black cabbage. The real point of the meal is going to be the white truffles we brought back from the truffle shack. Don has stored them in rice, which he's going to turn into risotto. Yes, I hate us too!

And I haven't even breathed a word about our meal last night at Sostanza. Don arranged everything, of course, or we couldn't have pierced the bead curtain during the tourist rush hour. Not only did we get the end of a table, we got treated magnificently. There was banter. Don called the food horrendous, then the owner put a finger to his lips and said, "Shhh... it's going great here, don't let anyone know."

We started with the fennel sausage, which is just in from the butcher's so it's tender and moist. Then I had the tortellini al sugo, which is just a simple pasta in a simple meat sauce. It somehow manages to be a complete experience, however. Then I had the Petti di pollo al burro, which is the Florentine way of saying, chicken breasts in butter. Oh, but it tastes so much more like petti di pollo al burro, with an absolute apogee of flavor just in that simple a dish.

Since we were with Don, I got a metal dish with all the pan scrapings. The poor lady next to me got the same order on a simple plate, sans scrapings. You could tell she was wondering why I got special treatment. The answer is: I know people in low places. Luckily, it's still delicious no matter how it's served. Dessert was the wild strawberries in lemon. Ira had the meringue, which is delivered every morning by an old guy on a bicycle. I know this because we ran into the guy on the way to the market this morning, and he and Don had a chat.