A long car ride awaits. It’s time for heading home.

Things that surprised and delighted me:

1. Everyone was so happy to meet me with some variation of “Ah! Florence in Florence!” This is very good for morale. I recommend everyone arrange have a name in common with a magical city.

2. A deep and important fashion scene, exquisite locally curated ingredients for sumptuous food, walkability and accessibility to the storied Tuscan countryside (which I’ve determined every city should incorporate as part of their 2050 goals ;-), a definitive and tangible sense of chic, and certainly not least art, art, and more art everywhere! The architecture, the exquisite master works works, even the shop fronts.

3. Shall I circle back rather rudely to the eponymous coincidence? Yes, I shall! For my 4-year-old self, who was less than impressed with her eight letter first and last names (not to mention two middle). Be proud little girl! One day you’ll own that classical name, but it’s okay that you wished to be named something a little more popular in 1989.

The adventure is not quite over. We have one last destination. You see, we had a portable fridge (this was NOT my idea) in the back of the car. The goal was to stop at a well-known prosciutteria in Parma, Silvano Romani Prosciutteria and work that little fridge fo all its wattage worth. Upon arrival in Parma, whatever sluggishness and tiredness we felt fell away. Mr. M literally flew about the shop in an untenable fashion. He first commandeered the full attention of the deli attendant, peppering him with questions on his wares with wildness flashing about the eyes. I took packs of meat from his unsteady hands, and attempted to answer a litany of questions about what he wanted to buy but couldn’t remember the name of. Case in point, the cashier had to save me when I took too long to sort out the name of the type of biscotti accompanied by a rich liqueur, that he ordered at dinner on nights two and three. “Was it here? Yes?! Get a bag, No two!”

I attempted a solo action by feebly picking through the fresh pasta fridge but soon the erratic phantom appeared over my shoulder all intensity and accusatory tones, “What’s in those ravioli?” As the store was nearing its mid-day closing, other patrons entered the store, where we were before alone. I breathed a sigh of relief that we were nearly done with the gathering of cheeses and bottles of this and that as the small space could not contain my whirling dervish.

I managed to grab a few photos; however, I was chastised about my lack of focus. “On what?” I asked, “That terrified deli man on a teetery ladder, grabbing obscure bottles from a top shelf?”

We rang out. Grabbed our two huge shopping bags and proceeded to the car. The fridge was strategically crammed with our plunder. You think we drove, dear reader for the love of car travel? No! We drove for this! This, being a car so loaded down with food and other groceries (because we stopped at a store where I bought a case of my favorite cleaning product (save bleach) Fabulouso (a multi-purpose wonder and yes, my floors are sparkling like never before! The trunk looked as if we were planning for a very gourmet armageddon with no less than eight other people.

We conclude our journey, and I certainly hope you enjoyed this limited-edition travel series as much as I did! It was great to be Florence in Florence after so many years of telling people, “No, it’s Florence, like the city in Italy”.

While our “show” concludes here, be on the lookout for a bonus featurette! Fragrance purchases and the importance scent and memory, and meeting a wonderfully warm fashion designer Elenora!