My time in Florence has been partly spent just living life as if I live here full-time. My apartment was equipped with most of the basics but was missing some things I use regularly. In Italy, there is no Target to go to get all those things quickly and easily. You have to kind of hunt and peck to find what you need, at least when you don’t know the city well. There are few chain stores where you can expect the same or similar types of items. That makes life a little more interesting!

I discovered a shop called Happy Shopping and they sell housewares, craft supplies, cleaning supplies, a little hardware, linens, etc. I made a few trips there to get things like cups large enough that you don’t have to refill your water every five minutes, a hand towel for the bathroom, a corkscrew, cutting board…You get the idea. I find it interesting to see how the others live and then contemplate why they don’t have a towel small enough to just dry their hands in the bathroom. These are the big thoughts I am having while I am here! Ha! Maybe I am also contemplating a few greater and more meaningful concepts at the same time.

I made yet another stop at Happy Shopping on my way to the grocery store. I picked up a couple of little things and paid the woman behind the counter. I had to pull out some coins because the smallest Euro paper bill is a 5. You end up using a lot of 1 and 2 Euro coins because of that. The shops also seem to regularly be short on the proper coins to make change so they like you more if you give them exact change or at least minimize their coin outlay. As I pulled out my wallet and my coin purse, I dropped a coin among the many little items that were on the counter in front of the register. The woman helped me find my coin, I paid and then went to get some food.

Grocery shopping at home tends to be fairly automatic. We know what brands we like and pick them up as we quickly whisk through the store. Here, I have very few favorite brands, and the ones I do know are usually wine and Nutella. In addition, because of my food allergy, I have to read labels again, in Italian, with my glasses on and hope I don’t need to translate too many words on my app. The app never seems to work when I’m deep in a store and don’t have many cell bars.

I spent about 20 minutes walking around the grocery store a little bigger than a convenience store at home and finally found all that I was looking for. I went to the register to pay and when I went to get my wallet out, it wasn’t there! Cazzi!

They say you know you are fluent in a language when you think in it and you don’t translate it in your head. I am nowhere near that but this moment was probably the first time I thought in my head in Italian. Thanks to an Italian tv series I watched recently, I picked up a swear word of sorts, that the main character liked to use regularly.

I was quickly able to put together a somewhat coherent Italian sentence letting the cashier know I would be back in a few minutes. I must have left my wallet at the last store. Or at least I hope it is there otherwise I dropped it somewhere along my path! I hustled back to Happy Shopping and, in Italian, told the woman behind the counter that I must have left my wallet there. Thank goodness she had it! I would have been in dire straights for a few days as I tried to cancel and replace all my cards.

The moral of the story is don’t put down your wallet while you get out your coins. And maybe keep your coins in your pocket. The upside was I learned a few new words in Italian that day! “Ho lasciato il portafoglio.”