Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Thing about Florentine Women is...

They're skinny, cream-skinned beauties who don't appear to sweat, and never spill anything on their effortless white linen and cotton attire. I see them leaving the gelataria with cones piled high with sweet dairy goodness or laughing with friends over a glass of chianti. Unless they're in some special climate bubble they're in the same hot humid place as me, yet they don't look flushed or sweaty and they certainly don't have olive oil, wine and gelato stains on their clothes. Of course, most are not involved in hand to hand combat with a meter tall dictator when I see them, but still a disproportionate number of Florentine women are endowed with an effortless chic I think must be denied to me by a lack of the specific genetics.

In an attempt to at least not be quite as sweaty I do use deodorant, but since running out of my Mitchum Stick for Men, I've been stuck with some crap called Infasil, which sounds like deodorant for the below 24 month crowd, but I doubt it would cut it for them either. There just isn't much in the way of deodorants here. And honestly, something named Infasil just isn't going to be able to deal with my over productive sweat glands. Perhaps Florentine women are a different species from me? Kind of like those beasties that ride bicycles up Mt. Lemmon?

The thing I appreciate most about the Italian white linen clad, is the effortlessness of it all. With the Swiss there is effort, even linen doesn't crease. Italians wear linen, it creases, but in a way that looks stylish. I wear linen and well...

Yep, beaten down today I figured I could join the cream goddesses in something and got a gelato. Snob enough that it didn't taste fabulous I walked down the street to another gelataria to buy one to erase the memory of a sub par gelato. Some of this isn't about genetics...

and yes, you've just read a post about sweat and deodorant. Be pleased I didn't include the picture.

ps. Anyone know why there is such a dearth of anti-perspirants and deodorants here?

5 comments:

  1. Auuugh, I am having a flashback (or as Italians would say, "fleshbeck") to my time there. Getting on a bus was an exercise in humiliation, as everyone would turn to regard the awkward, tall foreigner with the flaming red hair. A school friend and I coined the phrase "sguardo fiorentino" to describe the withering way bus riders would look at your face, then your shoes, then your face again, then your shoes again. Egads!

    I'm really not sure what I did for deodorant there, but I shouldn't talk since I got so lazy to hand-wash my laundry I wound up reusing socks and perhaps even other undergarments multiple times before washing. My inability to be as stylish as the fiorentini caused me to attain a level of slovenliness previously unforeseen in my life.

    Just keep enjoying the food, wherever it may land!

    --Deborah

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  2. You are so right about their effortless style. Blogger/stylist The Sartorialist chronicles Italian style regularly. I especially enjoy his captures of stylish seniors and bicyclists.
    http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

    I find it amusing that the only deodorant you are able to find rhymes with imbecile.

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  3. I am craving some Infasil Deodorant Crema! I have finally run out since my last stock-up in Rome in June '07.
    I wonder if your beloved Mitchum for Men is stocked in the UK?
    I would be only too delighted to send some over if you were to send me some Infasil...

    By the way, if you haven't already had to,
    do have a try of the Infasil Crema, I've been using it since 2000 and used to get my sister to send stocks over before she went and came back to the UK!
    Ciao!
    Emma Flynn
    emma_fly73@hotmail.com

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  4. Emma, I'm over in the UK right now, stocking up, but I will seek out the Infasil Crema. Perhaps I've just been using the wrong form? I'm ready to admit fault.

    Dutchbaby, Love that blog. Yes, the stylish seniors, the cyclists of all ages and all forms of footwear!

    Deborah, Between the two of us together in Firenze would make for an interesting sight then!

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  5. I discovered Infasil while on my honeymoon in Italy. While shopping I asked a woman what the name of her perfume was. She pointed to her underarms then the product on the shelf.. I bought all remaining 15 cans.. Love it! and need more....

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