first week a firenze

So I still love Florence, but have come to discover the small impracticalities. For example, the nonexistence of Ziploc bags - I seriously now have a grand scheme to revolutionize Italy by introducing the wonders of resealable freezer bags. There are giant ziplocs for maglietie (sweaters) e camicie (shirts) but not for food. How backwards is that!
Also, I learned the lesson the hard way not to buy gelato in the middle of town. Perché é carissimo. But I found a nice Bangladeshi lady who owns a vegetable shop that's cheap to begin with but also gave me a 20 cent discount on my potatoes and parsley because I spoke Italian as well as she did, which is to say, pretty badly. She also knew a little English. I feel bad because I know no Bangladeshi. Oh well.
On a different note, I bound a book. Ci sono due fotografie qui. I could have bought one like for 30 euro, but instead I made it! How resourceful of me. I bought the paper in an awesome little artisanal shop on via dei Bardi called Il Torchio. The woman was binding a folio of old WWII newspapers from the day il Duce (Mussolini - I don't rightly know if "Il Duce" is equivalent to "der Führer" - maybe I shouldn't use it?) decided to join the war, which was incredibly interesting. I love all the small shops, but it's sort of annoying when you know what you want and THEY DON'T MAKE IT. Like cheapo disposable tupperware. I mean, life is probably better here because of the lack of cheap disposable things, people think more about the value of whatever they buy, most places don't take credit cards. But at the same time it's so much less convenient.
I still like it. I would gladly live here. I'm making plans to go see the Galleria dei Costumi negli Palazzo Pitti. More later.