N and R are getting rained on

So the plus side to visiting Italy in the off season is pretty obvious...no crowds, no lines, cheaper rates. The downside is weather...it has been raining for two days now, and with only five channels of italian-only television (the simpsons is always on, but dubbed...they love it here), we've had to expand horizons to pass the time. R and I have been fighting over the kindle, she so she can read one of many bubble gum novels, and me so I can read the autobiography of one Benvenuto Cellini. Cellini was a renaissance artist who was born and lived here in florence about 500 years ago. His sculptures are all over the city and reading his autobiography is an interesting way to see what this city was like for people who lived here during the renaissance. Cellini spends alot of the autobiography lying, but luckily the translator jumps in often to explain that Cellini is in fact lying. Cellini's most famous work is the statue of Perseus holding the head of Medusa, in the Loggia della Signora, a few blocks from our apartment. The statue looks like this (not my picture):

Because R does not like to part with her kindle, I have also taken up a second hobby. We went today to an art supply store and I bought some water colors and painting supplies. There are people around every corner in this city set up to paint their favorite sights, and while I might aim to join them with my new purchases....I can't actually paint. In any case, its a fun way to pass the time, and hopefully by the time we leave florence I will have produced some paintings that are identifiable scenes from florence. This new hobby goes well with my old hobby, drinking craft beers. Tonight I had a northern italian beer (Peroni Grand Riserva) and played around with my new paint set. The kitchen table looked like this:

Finally, I've continued cooking italian dishes, which when coupled with cleaning up, is a pretty solid chunk of time. Tonight we had antipasto of tomato and buffalo mozzerella with bruschetta (bread grilled and topped with garlic, olive oil and salt topping), primi of mushroom stuffed ravioli in a sauce made from buffalo ricotta, milk, and sage, and a secondi (for me) of veal saltimbocca, a common dish in Roman cooking (veal cutlets wrapped in proscuitto and sage, cooked in a white wine and butter reduction sauce) . We were so hungry that we were already well into eating the pasta dish before i realized i hadnt taken any pictures. So dinner looks like this: