Accidental Viewings Florence Italy

Cari Amici,
So, I have had a rather strange 24 hours, prefaced by the fact that I did not work my Monday as a madonnara. That will cost me. Although I was feeling too tired to create a pastel drawing on the street here in Florence, Italy, I could really use all the euros I can get!

OK, so if you do not care for a wee bit of naughtiness, do not read further . . .

Instead of street painting, I worked on my écorché and my charcoal portrait of my friend Inga. On my way home from the studio, I crossed the Ponte Grazie and walked up Via Dei Benci. Just before I reached Piazza Santa Croce, something caught my eye. I was not sure if it was a motion or perhaps the light from the street falling in a dramatic manner, but I glanced inside of a car that was parked alongside the sidewalk I was on. Simultaneously, I thought, “That stick shift is really off-center” (my shape exercises coming into play, no doubt ;) and “What a wonderful deep golden color.” (I am an artist after all.)

Then a movement of the vertical kind, and I completely understood what I was just walking past! OMG, who DOES that? In such a busy street, I mean . . . Yet, even as I walked by him, I started to doubt what I had just seen. So, in my typically curious fashion, I turned around to look. Sure enough, I saw through his windshield a man sitting in the driver’s seat of the car and rather enjoying . . . perhaps the fact that he was without a doubt “caught.” I laughed out loud as I kept on walking. How funny people are.

Then today I was again walking and ran across this lovely vision on Via dell’ Ulivo: A mother was helping her young son learn how to pee in the streets of Florence! Charming, eh? She was actually pulling his pants down for him and teaching him to spread his legs wide to avoid the splatter.

Perhaps because my friends were surprised that I had not whipped out my camera the night before (but seriously, was there not enough whipping going on without my contribution?), I pulled out my digital and caught the following images for your viewing pleasure.

Well, at least we know how people learn how to behave.
Till next time, do not let those allergies get you down.