profile of a street person..

So nothing super amazing happened two days ago because we'd gone out the night before to ArtBar. This bar has these amazing cocktails/drinks with fruit piled up....artfully...around the rim and towering over the drink. Anyway, back at Piazza Signoira, we recognized Ian talking to Ken after Ken finished playing, so T. and I went up to perhaps reintroduce ourselves.
"I remember you," he said, pointing at me, "you have a really good...something...it just comes off of you. It feels really good."
The best news I'd heard all day. Yes! (recall: the kid from "nintendo 64 remix" vid on youtube.'Yes!yes! check this out if you don't know what I'm talking about).

So there we were again, with Ian on the steps of the Uffizi. We found out a couple cool things:
1) Sting now lives in the mountains of Florence, making organic wine that he sells in the city. Ken used to live in the mountains, so I guess they hung out. Also, Sting's wine is sold in the same store where Ian usually steals a bottle or two (he steals from stores, not people. Well, not people on the street..). Actually, Ian doesn't steal from there anymore because the owner of that store started just giving him a bottle every week-- a pretty cheap bottle but he must have figured he might as well just give Ian a bottle every week vs. having bottles stolen, you know?
2)That's how Ian gets most of his food, by stealing it from grocery stores or by people giving it to him. I went with him to pick up a bag of food from a bakery in the Piazza at 11 pm-- leftovers, but good ones. He has a couple of places around town that give him leftovers at the end of the day, and overall seems to be doing alright.
3)The best way to get those pesky flower-sellers to leave you alone is to follow Ian's example: when they come up to you and shake their roses in your face a couple times, reach out, snag a petal, and eat it. "Not very fresh," Ian repremanded the guy, "but thank you." He wasn't bothered again.

Ian read us some more of his poems, mainly about Toad, a character who deserves and is in the process of getting quite a series. I keep telling Ian to send his stuff into some journals, but he doesn't seem to be down at this time. We made plans to meet the next day at 4 pm, in Piazza Michaelangelo. I'm glad to have made such a favorable aquantaince with the.raddest.street.person. in Florence= time well spent.