Meat and Scouting Scenes

This may come as a shock to you, but I’m not a big fan of traditional Italian food. I don’t normally eat food made from grains, so pasta, bread, pizza, etc.. aren’t my favorite. I’ve learned to either get a charcuterie board or order from the ‘second plate’ part of the menu. This has been such a great discovery for me. I’ve heard of this Florentine Steak served here, but they are super expensive. It looks like it’s a thick cut of a ribeye steak leaving in the big center bone, which drives up the cost because it is sold by weight. It would be cheaper to order the famous meat raised near here as a ribeye instead of getting the Florentine cut. We ordered one just for the experience for 75 euros. It was delicious for the meat and fed the three of us, but, as I said, I’d just get a steak next time.

The restaurant we went to has the stereotypical Italian men working there. The good looking younger brother stands in the doorway flirting with every female that passes by and complimenting the men. He told Mark, “I’ve been to Alabama! I had a girlfriend there.” His brother was the waiter and an old guy who was probably the cook wandered around the tiny restaurant asking if they remembered the actor who played the priest on Saturday Night Live. The implication was that it was himself. He’d come back every couple of minutes to ask us again. We finally asked the server and he whispered it to Joe. Next time the old guy interrogated us we made a show of recalling the character’s name. It was comical how gratified he was.

We’ve been busily walking the routes of the characters from the screenplay. We went to the police station, down Via Santa Monaca (which I’m going to change to a more attractive street), Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, and up and down every side street and alley we were drawn into. We even ate at Grom Gelato because that was in a scene—the sacrifices we make to create a film!

We also took the train to Lucca. This time we let Mark do his own thing while Joe and I wandered and sat watching the world go by. I think Lucca has everything we need to film The Tattered Book. Lots of narrow streets, towers, piazzas, and churches. The giant earthen wall outside the actual city walls is gorgeous and has plenty of romantic vistas. The tunnel from the police station outside the wall into the old city would be awesome on film.

The next day Mark and I took the train to Prato and Pistoia. Joe stayed home… which was a good thing because he discovered a rooftop bar to take me to. Mark and I hoofed it around Prato for several hours. It’s a nice, tidy city. It has a really cool castle right in the middle. Everything was good, but the vibe wasn’t quite right. Not that that’s important because the vibe is from the movie, but still… it kinda fell flat.

Pistoia was a similar city but had more elegant piazzas and churches. It’s famous for its flowers and nurseries. We came across several outdoor plant markets. I like Pistoia better than Prato. It’s more like Florence, but no crowds. We can’t decide which would be better; Pistoia or Lucca. On our way back we purchased our train tickets and went to the track along with fifty other people and climbed on board. Both of us immediately became immersed in our phones until a dude stopped by us and said, “They canceled this train. It’s not going. You need to get off.” That’s when we noticed we were the only ones on the train. We got off to chaos. Everyone was standing around wondering what to do. I went over to a young Italian woman and asked her what was happening. She shrugged and said she didn’t know. This kind of thing happens all the time. She was staring at the monitor watching for the changed platform to show up since our train was still sitting there on track 2. About one minute before the next train came in (supposedly to track 2) the sign changed to track 4. Everyone started running for the stairs down to the tunnel to get to the other side to track 4. It was crazy. We all clambered aboard and sat there for five minutes. All-in-all, we were an hour late getting home.

Mark went to Rome for more meetings. One was at a well known producer’s home. He invited Mark for dinner and had several people there whom he works with regularly. It lasted so far into the evening that Mark didn’t bother finding a hotel and just stayed awake until his 6:00 am train. Today was more meetings that I’ll tell you about in the next blog.