Today I treated myself to some fine italian leather goods. As soon as you get off the train station in Florence you can smell the rich leather aroma that is wafting in the streets. It's alluring. It's seductive; and dammit it was calling my name.
I might've been the only woman who has never wanted a real leather jacket of her own. Call me crazy, but I never saw the need for it (I mean I live in southern Cali). Well I guess I came to my senses when I got here because as soon as I took one long breath of this Tuscan air, I was a goner.
Now that I had the leather bug, I couldn't just have any jacket, it had to be the right one. It took me a day and a half to find it, but when it happened, I knew it in an instant.
There are leather stores every 15 feet piled high with everything and anything leather. Searching for the right thing can be a very daunting task. Especially when you're a bargain shopper and you know that the man on the next street has a better price. Then it dawned on me that I was going about this all wrong. I can't get my fine Italian leather jacket from some man on the street who is soliciting me with the same 'Ciao Bella' as the two hundred people that came before me. I need to be wooed; court me! The selection of this jacket should feel like the sorting hat in Harry Potter, it should choose me... And choose me it did.
I had been eyeing this one jacket for a day now and something just kept pulling me back towards it. It was from a shop on the same street as our hostel so I had been passing it a few times a day. What caught my attention was the cut. I hadn't seen it in any of the other locations. It had a cowl neck line and an asymmetric body. My jacket needs to have personality and it needs to be unique. I finally decided to go into the shop and was immediately treated like family. This wonderfully tall Australian woman who spoke beautiful Italian said a little phrase that would forever change my wardrobe game: 'why don't you try it on'. She sized me up, reached for the appropriate jacket then held it up for me to slide in to. It was like holding a treat up to a puppy. Everything that happened next was like an out of body experience happening in slow motion. As the leather caressed each inch of my bare skin I knew in that moment that I was home. It fit like a glove. A glove made out of a baby's bottom. It was like butter; so smooth. She started to explain how this leather would age and wear well. How it will have so much character. Well, that was a wrap, I was a goner. I almost forgot to ask how much it was before I bought it (I know this is 'treat yo self' but I'm not that crazy). When I came back that evening to pick it up her husband was there too, a beautiful dark olive skinned man with so much spunk. The four of us chatted about life and traveling for a solid half hour and it was in that moment that I knew I had a made a 'fine' decision.
Treat Yo Self!
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