6ucci Horsebit Hobo

On my very first trip to Venice, Italy yesterday, I was stunned as soon as I walked out of the train station. The sky had opened up, and what was a dreadfully foggy morning, had turned in to a pleasantly warm and highly visible afternoon. After making a few obiligatory stops at pubs with my boyfriend and his friends, I found myself walking up on a street vendor who had a blanket laid down on the ground. Not completely uncommon for vendors in these narrow streets, but what I found on top of the blanket is what stopped me in my tracks. When I burst out with "Oh my god, that is the bag I've been looking for everywhere!" it was obvious to the haggler I was about to meet, and the company I had surrounding me, that either I was really excited about the bag, or I had a couple drinks AND I was really excited about the bag. I asked the vendor in attempted Italian how much the bag cost. My boyfriend told me that I could cut the crap because this guy spoke English. Sort of sheepishly he looked back at me and said in practiced English "50 euro." I knew the haggling had begun. I'm not sure how I ended up paying only 25 euro in the end especially since I started my bargaining at 30 euro. Before I had even settled on a price he was putting the purse in a plastic bag and handing it to me. He knew what he was doing. And I knew what I was doing. When you pay 25 euro (about 30 dollars American) you can expect all the details of this "replica" are not exact. The inside of the purse isn't very lush but nobody is looking inside except for me. And the G's look a bit more like 6's. But I choose to save! (Roughly $760 less than the authentic Gucci.)