Florence Day Three, in Chronological Rambling Narrative Form, but with Lots of Pictures So Hopefully not a Total Snooze-fest

Well, sleep eluded me again on day three in Florence. I really thought it was my night to just check-in to the hotel of serious REM, but instead I was just checked into the same old AC Firenze, which, as modern and comfortable as it was, was also kind of soulless and left me a bit restless. Slept from about 1 to 4am then gave it up.

Morning - tired Barb:


So I just read (getting worried that I will run out of books, though!) and surfed the web until about 8:00, then off to Chiaroscuro for coffee and breakfast. But even though my book said they open at 7:30, they were still fussing about in there and had the gate halfway down, so I mosied to the next cafe a few doors down. Some extremely handsome older fella served me a nice espresso doppio and a stunningly delicious wheat and honey croissant. It had a whole section of thick, floral honey in the middle, not just sweetness in the dough. Kind of "heaven in the form of croissant".

Heavenly Breakfast:


Then I wandered my way to the Mercato Centrale, making a nice lap around the Duomo, which, since it was early morning, was nearly void of people and was glowing in the morning sun:


Then did a few laps to scope out the Mercato Centrale, mostly to figure out what I wanted to buy to have for lunch later, but also to just ogle at all the offerings like big huge slabs of tripe and primal cuts of bistecca (basically many pounds of t-bone steaks not yet cut into t-bones...I'd guess they are about 40-pound hunks of meat), a zillion whole prosciuttos hanging from the hoof, all kinds of strange poultry, some with their heads still on and a few feathers too. I finally made my choices and bought some multigrain bread made with ricotta, some mortadella, pecorino with truffles, and little tiny artichokes in olive oil (sticker shock on those little darlings, but not regretted once I popped one in my mouth).

Where I bought my mortadella:


Then more wandering, first getting away as quickly as possible from the countless stalls of people selling junk. I have no idea how they find people to buy their crap, but Florence, known for its fine crafts of jewelry, leather goods, textiles, etc., is just chock full of crap-stalls pedalling low quality crap made from some crap-town to a bunch of crap tourists. I mean, crap! Anyway, I bolted away from a dense bunch of said crap vendors and made it back to the Piazza della Signorina, which was remarkably devoid of its usual tourist throngs.

Scenes from the piazza:


Dude, look at all those statues:



Then wandered my way along the Arno, finding an English language bookstore and jumping on the opportunity to add to my pile, just so as not to run out.

I wish the Ponte Vecchio was still full of butchers instead of jewelers. That would be cool. But it's still an awfully nice bridge:


Then back to the AC Firenze to pack up and check out. Then the next challenge: finding my way to my cottage. I thought it would be a snap and that I would also find a little park to enjoy my lunch so as not to arrive too early (since they tell you to arrive around 1). But, this being Florence and me not knowing my way around, and the Google directions saying it's only about 4 km away but listing about 30 streets and turns, it ended up taking me an hour to find my way. However, I at least had a better map and more sense about when to just pull over and check the map or give up, turn around, retrace, etc., so I came upon the villa long before going into panic mode.

Upon first arriving at the villa I found my little cottage and felt initial disappointment. It's a little musty and a little more rustic I had expected. And there wasn't a single sole in sight, so I just unpacked my things, fixed up some lunch, and ate over by the pool.



Then Armando the groundskeeper came by, and I had a nice chat with him, and his wife brought up bottle of wine for me, and I started to feel a little bit better about the place. Finished my lunch, had a swim (delightful!), and played a little cello. Then Dudi, who I presume lives in the huge beautiful villa and is the person I communicated with when booking the place, came by the cottage to praise my cello playing and introduce herself. So by then I decided my cottage freaking RULED and that I was going to like it here. What a relief!


In the evening I walked back into the city center (first time without flip-flops -- I can get my pinkie toe into my Dansko sandals, much to the relief of my OTHER foot which now has a big blister from flip flop friction). Scoped out the supermarket, which looks tiny from the outside but goes back and back and has lots of fresh-looking produce, a whole wall of wine, and a bevvy of meats and cheeses. Won't be a problem to feed myself. Then to Chiaroscuro (which was finally open) for an ice cappucino, which apparently means something like cappucino ice cream with foam and cinnamon, served in a big martini glass. Not what I was expecting, but I certainly wasn't complaining.



Next I attempted to go to an organ concert at the church near Chiaroscuro, but in typical Italian signage form, I guess "every Saturday at 6pm" doesn't actually mean anything happens Saturday at 6pm. Hopefully I'll catch one, though, as I'm jonesing for live music of any kind, and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of options with it being August and all. And the sign says "organ concerts every day", so hopefully that means there will be an organ concert on one of the days that I'm in town.

Next, off I went to Moyo, one of the two places in town that has free wifi. Unlike Seattle, you can't just get online for free in every square inch of the town, so I had to lug my netbook in hopes of this place actually existing and actually having wifi. Settled in with a mojito and got the wifi (they have some law where you have to give them your passport to get online, because everyone on the internet must be a terrorist or something). At the table next to me was a very pleasant older fella named Peter who is Canadian but lives in London. He has spent some time in the music biz as a venue owner and promoter, so we had a nice chat about various bands and music and so on. It was pretty much the first actual conversation I've had since arriving here, and much welcomed. Then the thunder and rain came, and even though I didn't want another beverage, the kind barmaid invited me to come inside (I had been on the outside patio) and have a seat and some free food. The bars in Florence have serious free snacks -- not little bowls of peanuts or popcorn, but an entire buffet table of fresh veggies and dip, grilled fennel, peppers, chicken, bowtie pasta salad with tomatoes, farro grain salad, yadda yadda. Serious food, all delicious and all free. Which was really excellent because I didn't have the energy to figure out dinner, especially in a downpour.

Finally the rain let up and I took the opportunity to walk home without getting completely soaked. Then back in my cozy cottage for the night.