a while ago in Florence

When we arrived in Florence after our jaunt through Tuscany, navigation was by memory. I was there and around for a few months in early 1994, and thought it would be easy enough to find the friends I had met then.

We were hot and sticky after a few days camping in the best of Tuscany's abandoned villas, so it was good to find the mercato centrale with a minimum of fuss and only one shortish conversation with a helpful old man. Sneaking around the inner city, we found a bit of space to park. I thought we would go into the market and ask around for Adriano and Beatrice, sellers of panini al lampredotto (bread rolls filled with Florentine meat specialties).

We´d just got our helmets off when a bloke on an old blue Vespa rocked up - some vague level of recollection rose in me. I watched as he walked across the road to a little door and sorted his keys, then turned his head... it was Adriano! Adriano?! Disbelief on both sides of the road. Andrea?! Ma no!! Invece sí!

So that´s how we met up, without making any prior arrangements. We couldn´t have anyhow, I hadn't had their number for years and they had moved twice. I was stoked - we'd bumped into the first friends I ever met in europe, genuine, down-to-earth people that Emily had already heard stories of. I mean, impossible; right there in the street, without chasing or asking or really looking at all, we had got ourselves to their storeroom just as Adriano was arriving too.

Things moved pretty quickly from there. We went straight to the stand - well, maybe after a little aperitif - to see Beatrice. I guess we were all pretty stunned! I mean, where have you been, we thought you´d come back, we went to australia but couldn´t find you. What? Obviously you want a panino..? (Em took a second to get used to the filling...)
Then they laid out the plan: we´ll take you home, you can shower, we are going up to the mountains tonight, you´ll come, right? Sí, sí, how could we not? Such a pleasure to be greeted - again - by long lost friends.

So there we went, first to their place where once again we were given the keys to the city, the run of the house, all that proper hospitality. Adriano went back to work, and left us with the dogs who were also happy to have guests. We parked the bike in the backyard, unpacked and, as instructed, made ourselves at home.

Castagno di Sant' Andrea is in the mountains about an hour out of Florence. At the top of the village is Adriano & Beatrice's place. The track leading up the mountain from there leads into the castagni - the chestnut forest. It´s autumn, the middle of the chestnut season. Adriano, as his father was, is a man about town up there, just as Beatrice is a feature of market life in Florence.

The weekend was about hanging out with friends, and about chestnuts. Life in Castagno (note that the name of the place is the name of the trees) is lived at a slower pace. It´s tied to the collection of the nuts, their processing, the products that are made from them: flour, bread, sweets, liqueurs, and of course the nuts themselves. Em and Beatrice collected nuts most of the day, and there´s more to that than meets the eye, especially given that they are a commercial crop. Adriano and i collected a few here and there, but most of the time was spent discussing the technicalities of maintaining a productive forest - there's also more to that than you'd think. Here and there we all took various refreshments in the little cabin. More friends came up for lunch, and we took in the peace of the place.

Making a living from the land over the long term requires respect for and knowledge of the place and its nature. People look after the forest in Castagno, and the forest provides for them, too.

In the afternoon we went to the festival of the castagni, of course, given that it was on. More genuine, unhurried people, speaking the heavy dialect that confirms they are of the place - groovy down to earth people of all generations, in Em's words. And chestnuts, chestnuts, chestnut cakes, beer, chestnut talk, chestnut deals.

Then back to Florence, city of art, architecture, markets, home of friends. Beatrice, expert in the kitchen, taught Emily to make gnocchi and threw in another language lesson. We hung out more with Adriano and Beatrice, despite how hard they work. In the markets, at home, walking the huskies, once again we were immersed in the lives of our hosts.

They´re married now - they weren't when I met them - and had been to Australia for their honeymoon. Adriano still had my parents' number in his phone, and had tried to get people to call for him. In the meantime though, there had been a change to the phone system and this got in the way. And, had we come to Florence at any time in eight of the previous ten years, we would not have found them either. But as luck would have it...

Anyhow as you see, Em and Beatrice got on like a house on fire. Here they are making gnocchi.

Before we left Florence, Em appreciated the Uffizi Galleries while I got some new tyres on our bike. I was almost as impressed with the Pirellis as Em was with the Botticellis! Once again, we could have stayed longer, but we had to head north.

If you´re ever in Florence, look for these two! Mercato centrale, panini di lampredotto...

oh, and this bloke. He's a mate of David's.