Ok, I'm already in bed so this is going to be short (ha, ha - I know). I'm really trying to keep up with my challenge to myself to write a little something about our day every day. It's harder than I thought! But I will preservere, even if it comes down to incoherent ramblings amounting to "My feet, my feet, my poor sore feet".
So, my feet really hurt. Can you tell? I've started using my cane full time now and while it's a huge help, it makes me feel even worse about the state I've let myself get into. I've felt like my body was my enemy for a long time, but I really feel now that it hates me as much as I hate it. Why can't we just trade parts - or the whole thing - in when we need a refresh? Argh.
However to look on the bright side, all this walking has GOT to be doing something good for me. And the cane is good for blocking Carbon from getting particularly tasty bits of nasty former food laying in wait on the ground. I may be slow on my feet, but I'm fast with that cane.
Today it rained and rained and rained some more. Then finally around noon it settled in to just nice and gray and Carbon and I headed out amidst the puddles. We took the tram again and again it was standing room only. Carbon was more of a pro and I got better at snapping up a dog-friendly seat.
May I just say that this TAIL business is a pain in the backside on public transport? I've never had to deal with a tail! Four feet, yes, but NO TAIL. The darn thing goes everywhere. Just when I get the feet corralled, the tail pops out the other end to be stepped on. My strategy with Brogan was always to block his feet inside my own, so my feet were on the outside and would get stepped on before his. I can do this with two front feet, but obviously not the tail. I kept trying to tuck the darn thing in behind one of my feet, but then our perpetually-happy Carbon would wag wag wag and the tail would pop out again into the danger zone. Argh! I have a steep learning curve here.
Once in Florence, the streets went better today. Unless distracted by food on the ground or another dog, Carbon has become really good at moving through crowds without me having to steer him with the leash. No Italian men kissing him today, but he got massive pets and hugs from a young American couple who were missing their golden retriever. Carbon was happy to be a stand in.
My only goal today was to visit my former Italian school and my favorite teacher pretty much of all time. I first attended Accademia del Giglio ten years ago and with the exception of a couple years have come back for a visit - or visits - every year. My former teacher, Cecilia, used to fawn over Brogan - and put up with his gassiness in his later years - and she did not disappoint in her attentions to Carbon.
She's not a dog person, she's a parrot person. Her beloved parrot who had been with her 35 years passed away a couple of years ago and she went through the whole "No, I'm not getting another" thing but last year got a young African Grey. She was telling me about the challenges taking him on holiday with her. I didn't even know that was possible! It sure made travelling with a dog sound easy peasy. At least if Carbon gets upset he doesn't pluck all his chest hair out, he just tries to stand on my face.
She also says her new parrot talks constantly...even asking her "Che fai?" (What are you doing?) when she's in the kitchen making dinner. That made me think how weird it would be if our dogs could do the same. I think Carbon's - and most Labradors' - monologue would be "I'm hungry, feed me!" pretty much 100% of the time.
I wasn't going to stay all afternoon - she's running a school after all - but I did. I thanked her later and apologised for taking her whole afternoon and she said that's all she planned for the day. "I just wanted to sit and talk!" she said. So we did.
I'll stop by tomorrow to say (maybe) a brief goodbye and to take photos. I forgot to take photos! With Brogan we did photos every visit. This was his last visit with Cecilia:
I walked with Cecilia back to the train station and at first Carbon was really putting on quite a polished show of his new working heel skills. Then we ran into one dog too many - another Labrador at that - and the strain of all that good behaviour kind of popped out and he went a bit off in the head, poor boy. I think it was operator error as well as I was having a hard time working with him, speaking Italian, and limping along fast enough to keep up with Cecilia.
Next Carbon and I walked back into the centre of town and visited my favorite ceramics shop to buy some gifties. I love this one place because they are so dog-friendly and have their own Labradors. Over the years I've met the husband, wife and daughter who run the shop as well as make the ceramics themselves. Today it was the wife. She was very impressed by Carbon and had to show me new pictures of their girl, Ginger. She was the crazy puppy when I first went into the shop with Brogan - now she is seven years old. Time flies!
That was another hour chatted away in my bizarre - but apparently comprehensible - mix of Spanish and Italian. As Carbon exited the shop, I did a little victory dance because there was NO BREAKAGE. In a tiny ceramics shop with THAT TAIL. Whew!
Then it was another tour around the Duomo, a beeline for the railway station and tram stop, another standing room only tram ride and tail-protection dance and BOOM we were home. Despite appearing to wilt of exhaustion in the tram, Carbon did crazy zoomies around the garden with his Bunny. I think this boy needs more free runs and a bit less 'working' time. After tomorrow and our last day in Florence, countryside here we come!
Oops, that wasn't short after all. Quelle surprise.
I think I can safely say, they were really trying to only kiss Carbon!
and your exploits are so beautifully described it's like I'm there with you. To make it even more interesting, we are planning a trip to Europe next year and Venice and Florence are on the list! So it's making the trip even more exciting for us as well as giving us some necessary knowledge about what to see and do. 
