This story is actually about a challenge leading to a further challenge. When we began planning a trip to Florence, Italy I started to research food that we should try while we were there. I learned that Florence is the home of the lampredotto. The lampredotto is street food, a sandwich made with tripe that is boiled, seasoned and served on a bun. I’m not a fan of tripe but I do believe that you should at least try the food of the region that you’re visiting. Well, actually, I believed that someone in our group should commit to trying the lampredotto. I suggested it should be Jesse.Turns out that he didn’t like tripe either. He seemed as reluctant to commit to trying it as I was.
We came up with a solution. Jesse suggested that we have a fitbit workweek challenge, with the loser honor bound to try the lampredotto when we arrived in Florence. That week Jesse in Texas, and I in N.H.,walked more than we ever had before or since. All told we both walked over 250,000 steps in that 5 day period. Unfortunately we had a technical problem. Jesse had issued the original challenge but I had trouble accepting it, so I reissued the challenge. This resulted in the challenge ending at midnight N.H. time instead of midnight Texas time.
The challenge ended an hour earlier than Jesse had expected, resulting in a win for me. Jesse argued that if the challenge had ended at midnight Texas time, as he had intended, he would have had an extra hour to walk and would have won. As a compromise we agreed that we both would tackle the lampredotto when we got to Florence and the winner would be the one who ate more of the sandwich. In the months leading up to our trip there were numerous taunts on both sides about who would back out when the lampredotto was actually in their hand.
Flash forward to Florence, we had finished our Inferno tour and our tour guide had left us off at a lampredotto stand. Finally the day had come, after months of (friendly) insults about who was too delicate to handle this hearty tripe sandwich, it was time to (literally) put the lampredotto where our mouths were. I knew that if I had any chance of winning I would have to put my tripe aversion aside and lead with a bold offensive move. I tackled that sandwich like a beast, taking huge bites washed down by gulps of Diet Coke.
Bite after huge bite I dared Jesse to follow my lead. Victory was in sight, I had the lead but texture was a foe I had not anticipated. I suddenly bit into a very large piece of flaccid tripe and was faced with the inescapable fact that I was eating a cow’s stomach. I couldn’t go on, I tapped out, assuming that Jesse would continue on to the finish. As it happened though, the sight of that large, limp piece of tripe brought Jesse to a screeching halt too. Although we did not finish the entire sandwich we were glad we tried it. Actually, it had a nice flavor. Jesse has said that he would consider trying it again. As for me, I think I’ll give it a pass.
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