birthday hunt

at the porcellino • cellini • on the ponte vecchio • finding a clue at the palazzo vecchio
Chris' birthday was this past Wednesday. We'll be the same age for 18 days, and then he's married to an older woman again!

I took him on a small scavenger hunt through the city after our morning classes, since we'd always talked about this idea being fun. We started at our favorite foccaciaria for lunch where I gave him the 1st indizio (clue). This led to the porcellino in Piazza Nuova where he had to correspond letters on a plaque to numbers on the 2nd clue card. Clue #2 spelled out lucchetti (padlocks) which took him to the Ponte Vecchio where lovers used to put locks all over the railing of the bridge and throw the keys in the river to "seal their love forever". We saw this several years ago, but now the bridge is free of locks because there is a city ordinance against it now. There is a statue there of Cellini which held the letters for the next clue: "guts". This led to the Palazzo Vecchio where a man was hung from the balcony and gutted (wonderful I know) in the film Hannibal. There was an additional clue that led to a circle marble slab on the ground in front of the palace with an inscription. This message spelled out a clue that led to a gellateria across town that we hadn't tried yet, but we'd heard that they made wonderful affogati. We sat inside for a while enjoying our afternoon snack while Chris pondered the last clue which led to a used bookstore that we like, so that he could pick out a couple of items he'd been wanting.

Later that day I gave him his gift and several friends came over for a small celebration. The weather looked like it was going to be a wet day, but even though it was overcast, the rain never fell. It ended up to be a pleasant day wandering around the center, and a nice way to see the city during a workday, since I had to stop and wait while Chris worked on the clues. I got to be still and just observe the daily "goings-on" around me, including an entire rotation of local workers standing and eating outside of a lampredotto (cow stomach) sandwich stand (a very popular dish here...uck!).

BUON COMPLEANNO CHRIS! TI AMO!