Running

I go for a run  early in the morning – up at 6, it is still dark , and I slowly get ready to go – it’s chilly here in the mornings, so it takes a huge effort to maintain the momentum of going out the door and not back to bed.

I have a running band where I can put my key and a little note that says, “If you find me, please return me to Istituto Michelangelo”. I feel like Paddington Bear, but, hey, should something happen, someone should know where I belong. I try to open my bolted door as quietly as I can, but these giant locks just aren’t made to be quiet. Same thing for the bolt at the end of the hallway. Then I go all the way down and onto the almost deserted street. 

I run up to the Duomo – it is huge and empty around it then I turn left. There are a few white delivery trucks buzzing about and a few people getting their market carts from wherever they keep them at night.  

There is a crew of fluorescent orange pant wearing people sweeping the sidewalk debris into the streets ahead of the streetsweepers who spray, brush and suck up all the garbage. The orange pant people then congregate at the bars (caffes) catching up from the day before over their first coffees, waiting for the streetsweepers to catch up.  Then I make a right turn and through the empty Piazza della Republicca and past the Ferragamo, Cavalli, Dolce and Gabana, Gucci and the other fancy store windows and finally end up on the Arno. I run west, across two more bridges and then turn around. The river is like glass, the sky is just starting to lighten up behind the city and the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo are all lit up. The sky is so clear I can even see the reflection of the stars in it. Back along the Arno, crossing a shuttered Ponte Vecchio, passing the Ufizzi, dodging the street cleaners, sometimes they turn off their sprayers as I cling to the sidewalk, other times I have to jump over the water. Another left onto Via Giuseppe Verdi, passing in front of Piazza Santa Croce and then just before I turn onto my street, the flower shop is setting up and arranging the flowers in buckets outside his store and I get to run through the scent. After a few days, we "Ciao!" each other.

Back to my palazzo and I get to wake everyone up again with the clanking of the 4 deadbolts.