As if we didn’t shop enough yesterday or more importantly spend enough yesterday, today we are shopping our way through Florence.

We got a relatively early start for us. I got up and got dressed and headed out to see the inside of the church. Christina had no desire to see it and I just wanted to pop in. Surprisingly it did not open until 10:15 so I had to wonder a bit but it was a pretty morning so I just walked around and looked at the art vendors who were setting up. Finally got into the church just to see the dome painting. The rest of the church is pretty bare but the dome has an elaborate judgement day painting of heaven and hell. Jesus is in the middle with angels all around but then demons are grabbing people along the bottom and dragging them to hell. I suppose it is encouragement to be good but the hell scenes are more eye catching. So wh I knows. Pop

Met up with Christina at the cafe outside our apartment for coffee and breakfast/snack (is it wrong to call pizza breakfast). After our fortification we headed out to explore Florence.

First stop of the day was the Ponte Vecchio for some window shopping. It wasn’t horribly crowed so we were able to window shop over the bridge. But again what is the fun of looking if you can’t buy so we found some silver (the stores are mostly gold) and I made my first purchase of the day. I originally picked out some earrings shaped to resemble the cathedral dome but couldn’t resist the matching pendent on a sparkly silver chain. Christina found her own sparkle in the store so we both purchased jewelry on the bridge.

Now on the other side of the river Arno is a bit more peaceful. It is crowded right around the bridge but it soon clears out and the stores are not as crowded so easier to shop. We pass our first glove store so I am off to spend more money. The first couple of times I was in Florence there were gloves stores everywhere. This trip I haven’t seen any around the Duomo or up by the train station. So I was excited to find this one.

From the glove store we hit the paper store I fell in love with on my last trip. I purchased a few things and we were off again. Sadly they were not doing the paper demonstration. I would have liked to have seen that again.

We headed back across the river to find the old pharmacy Christina had read about and the vendors we bought from yesterday walking to the bus. The pharmacy was more luxury creams and perfumes than pharmacy but they did have some elixirs to tie it to it original purpose. Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella was originally established by the monks back in 1221 making perfumes and “medicines”. The pharmacy is now housed in a chapel built in appreciation for the monks for healing a wealthy merchant back in the 1600s. We couldn’t pass up trying the goods and both of us left with new products to help heal our skin.

Christina wanted to purchase a few CG souvenirs she had seen on our elk to the bus yesterday. Yesterday we walked down one block with vendors on both sides. Today we get to the area and there are vendors everywhere. Not sure if we were just so focused on getting to the bus that we didn’t look down the side streets or if the vendors multiplied like rabbits overnight. Anyway we wandered through and although it seemed vendors had the same things she couldn’t find what she saw the day before. We wandered through several times with everyone trying to get you to stop and look at their goods. Christina finds a vendor who has all the things she is wanted to buy and proceeds to try to haggle for a better price. He keeps adding in additional stuff trying to get her to buy this bag or matching wallet. He got a little too pushy for me so I walked away. Christina held firm and got the price she wanted. She did end up with an extra bag but she seemed happy with it.

I found some other things to buy but since they are gifts I can’t say what but I was not as good at haggling as Christina. I bought 4 items and paid the full price for each. Still way cheaper than they would have been in the states and I appreciated the less pushy salesmen. He showed me what I wanted to see and didn’t try to get me to buy anything else. So in the end both of us had the kind of experiences we wanted.

After our shopping excursion we took our treasures back to the apartment to make plans for dinner. The 46 stairs are getting old especially when you are hauling packages and have to go to the bathroom. We rested, regrouped and decided to try one more time for the restaurant recommended by the first guy we met in Florence when we bought our first purses, the Acqua al 2. It looked a little fancy in their website and the menu didn’t have prices but we made reservations and decided to splurge. It was a short walk so we had plenty of time to change into fancier outfits basically out of our tennis shoes and head out. Surprised when we got there to see that the prices were not ridiculous.

Turns out it it was the best meal we have had all n the trip. Surprisingly only 9€ more than last night fiasco. Christina’s chicken was delicious and my steak pie/pizza was fantastic.

After dinner we stopped and got a bottle of Prosecco and some sweets and headed back to the apartment to wrap up the day.