Plan…Travel…Repeat

We had intended to catch the train out to Saint Andrews for the day since we have several days in Edinburgh both on the tour and on our own, but decided to do the hop on and off bus on our way to the train station. Turns out it was a good decision. We had a great day seeing the sights and not surprisingly doing more shopping.

First stop on the bus was the grass market where they were having a farmers/craft market. We bought a few things and walked around and saw the sights. The location turned out to be where there was supposedly this great view of the castle – if of course you are willing to walk up several flights of steps. The first picture is from the ground level no steps required just hop off the bus and snap. The second probably equivalent of 4/5 flights. Was it worth it. Not sure.

A better find at this bus stop was Victoria Street. There is a pub on this treat where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter and some say it was the inspiration for Diagon Alley. Regardless of whether you are a Harry Potter fan or not the street is worth a visit with its brightly colored buildings. There is also a small museum that was once an oddity shop that is cashing in on the Harry Potter fame. There was a line of about 30 people waiting their turn to enter.

From here we hopped back on the bus and headed off to the next stop. which turned out to be more shopping. We intended to do the textile museum but never made it. Instead we shopped our way down to the next bus stop. We found the cutest knitting shop that sold both wool and finished items. I came out with a green sweater and a blue hat. Val went crazy and bought basically one of everything. Not really but she did keep adding to her stack. Being hot natured most of the sweaters were way to heavy for me but it was fun to look. The owner told stories about who made what so at least we knew we were not buying mass market tourist stuff.

We had a bite to eat then off to the next bus stop to finish our tour. However, it turns out a protest was coming down the street so no buses for a while. We thought we would get away from it and walk on to the next stop but ended up making it past two before we saw the buses running again.

If we hadn’t climbed up enough for the perfect picture we did it again. This time up Caiton Hill. This one was more worth it but still not the best photos of the castle. There was a least some things at the top of the climb to see but not sure I would recommend it. You can walk up without using the steps so not horrible just not all that great.

We had dinner plans with one of the ladies we met on the last tour so we walked back to our hotel to get ready to meet up with her. This time we took a recommendation from the concierge at her hotel and our dinner was much better. I had the steak and ale pie and it was delicious. She had just flown in so she went back to her hotel after dinner and Val and I wandered around a bit and I finally got the picture of the castle I had been hoping for. the sun was setting and the castle looked like it was glowing. We took several more photos and called it a night.

For all the mad dash of yesterday, everything came together today. We arrived right at 10 all our luggage made it fine and it was an easy cab into the city and our hotel.

The weather was what I guess is a typical spring day for everyone not in Texas. The sun was shining and the air was crisp if somewhat cold. The plan for the day was to make it through until evening, so after dropping off our luggage we headed out to see what was in our neighborhood. We are on a nice pedestrian street with several pubs and coffee shops pretty much in the center of new town and not far from the historic high street.

We walked around to get our bearings and soon started doing what we do best -shopping. I am a sucker for scarves and Edinburgh is the mother load of tartan scarves. It wasn’t long before I had picked out my first one. I will say there is a tartan store on every block and often two or three and even the same stores right across the street from each other. You did find different colors so we checked out most of them (big surprise I know).

We did quite a bit of walking and found our way to several of the sights we will see on the tour so we just took a few photos from the outside and moved on. We did make several wrong turns that included climbing flights of stairs. We went down the never ending stairs by the castle (the castle sits on the top of a volcano to give you an idea of of the never ending staircase) only to find there was no way around on that side and had to climbs back up. Stopped for lots of pictures at the top to catch our breath before we back tracked the way we came back to the hotel.

We picked a pub close to the hotel for dinner. There were a lot of people drinking but no one eating which should have been our first sign. The tiny kitchen behind the bar should have been our second. Ever the adventurers I went ahead and order two fish and chips. All I can say is that the beer was good. Actually the fish wasn’t so bad just lackluster.

We made it to 8 so felt respectable to head back to the hotel for bed. We watched a little BBC before completely crashing out. No air conditioning so it did get a little hot in the room but we slept until Val’s alarm woke us up at 6. She forgot to turn it off. Sun was already out so it was hard to go back to sleep. But more on day two tomorrow.

Here are some sights around Edinburgh. I got the new iPhone so my camera would be better and I think it really paid off. The gargoyles are on the top of the Scott monument. Also for a mere 10 quid you could hold that eagle but I passed not because I didn’t have cash because surprisingly he took cards to make it super easy to have your photo op, I just don’t want to wear the nasty glove. I forgot to take pictures of my purchases but will do that tomorrow.

Packed and ready to take off on another Alison Weir tour with my sister. This time off to Scotland to see some of Mary Queen of Scots stomping ground with a highlight of dinner on the Royal Britannia while in Edinburgh.

All seemed to be going smoothly until I went to check into my flight and delta responded with a notice of two days until time to check-in. Panic ensued. First thought was how could I have messed up the dates so bad. Emails confirmed I had booked for the right day but all that was showing with the confirmation number was the new flight l, nothing bout the change. Made me feel like I was crazy. Delta not being my favorite airline (Atlanta is a nightmare), I don’t have the app or even a login so it was a struggle to confirm my flight times. The call wait was an excruciating 30 minutes and then about another 30 getting it fixed. Seems there was something going on at the Amsterdam airport and our flight was canceled and rescheduled for Saturday night. It would have been nice to be informed but I guess that was too much to ask. Even the agent helping could see that it said I hadn’t been notified. Not sure how that is appropriate but then it also wasn’t letting her change the flight without me paying for the difference in the tickets. So after what seemed like hours on hold the supervisor made the adjustments necessary to rebook me to go out on Thursday flying through New York. This meant we had to head out 3 hours earlier and made my decision to work that morning seem really stupid. Good thing I was packed and ready over the weekend so other than a few things like phone cords I arrived with everything I needed.

After a mad dash out of the office we got to the airport around 12:30 and had time for lunch which I was excited about since a lot of Austin restaurants are now only in the airport. We ended up at Huts. The burger was good but Austin burgers have come along way from when Huts used to be the go to place on 6th. The cheese fries not so much. It was like movie nacho cheese with a sprinkling of grated cheddar. Don’t get me wrong I ate them but they were far from what I remembered. It did however make the 2 hour wait at the airport go quickly.

Due to the last minute change to our flights we lost our comfort plus seats and were on the very last row crammed in like sardines. The flight to New York was miserable. We had a quick connection to our next flight and walked to the gate right as they were starting to board so all the worry about the tight connection was for nothing. Again we were in the last row but the seats did have a little more space and were not as uncomfortable. All our luggage made it safely to Scotland (even my carry one that I checked at the gate). So all worked out in the end.

We made it to Edinburgh much earlier than the original flight so had the whole day to wander. more on that later.

Thursday is market day in Orvieto and we came out to a much busier town. The sun was shining and more shops were opened so it looked like it was going to be a great day to wander the town.

I was up and ready early so I went out to take some pictures of the church in the sunshine. The last time I was here the church was covered in scaffolding and you could not see any of the facade which was very sad since it is amazing. It has gold mosaics and carved panels that seem like they were finished yesterday not in the 13th and 14th century. There are four panels beginning with Genesis and the birth of man and ending with the Last Judgment. They are really intricate but to me overshadowed by the good mosaics which are mostly about Mary. They are spectacular. Assuming they were cleaned and restored in 2004 when I was here before they look brand new. They are as dynamic as the mosaics in St Mark’s in Venice that are inside. Although I guess the elements inside can cause damage as well but it just seems that this shouldn’t be this sparkly 600 years later.

I didn’t have to time to go in before heading to the markets so I plan to do that this afternoon.

The market was typical of an Italian village market. Selling everything from vegetables, cheese and meats to clothes and household goods. We wandered a bit but didn’t see anything we couldn’t live without. I think Christina was expecting more like the markets in Florence so this was a completely different experience. I did expect a bit more touristy offers but likely those vendors only come out in higher tourist seasons. We did however see more people in town then we saw altogether the last few days so it was a good sign.

We shopped in a few stores including a great pottery shop. I went a bit overboard and bought several things. So much so even the shipping was outrageous. But their things were beautiful and I am already sad I didn’t buy more. Everything was hand painted in Orvieto, some even by the women helping us out. So I felt good about my purchases. I wanted a pasta set but not a big thing here. They had some beautiful big bowls but not the individual size. So instead I went with a big platter that has several divided pieces in a lovely turquoise design. I should have taken the other stuff off before the picture but you can still see it. Can’t wait to have people over to use it.

We went up to drop off our purchases and look for a place to have pizza for lunch. It was sunny and pleasant when we went up 20 minutes later the wind picked up and it was freezing. We tried several restaurants that came up in our search but they were either closed or didn’t seem to have pizza. So after a bit of walking in the freezing wind we went back to the bar underneath our apartment. Actually the pizza was really good so we should have just started there.

After lunch we went to get Gelato. It has sadly been a limited gelato trip. Usually I would get gelato everyday but that has not happened this trip. We looked for it in Treviso but all the gelato shops were closed so we didn’t get to try it there. We had it our first day is Florence but it was really disappointing so I didn’t even mention it. We could have tried again there but I didn’t even see anywhere where it really looked good. Of course it was cold and a lot so that might have been most of the issue. Regardless I have had way much less gelato than I would normally have on an Italian trip and was going to have gelato in Orvieto at Pasquale’s even in the freezing wind. It was delicious just the gelato I needed and well worth the wait.

Afterwards I decided to try to go into the church but is was closed for a funeral. They said it would likely be an hour so I tried to stay out until it opened back up. I walked all around town. Even met a local who worked as a handy man at the cathedral and a local fireman. He told me all the things I shouldn’t miss in town and informed me that he had once worked at Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth. He was a nice enough guy and I enjoyed our conversation but it was really cold and I wanted to head back to see if the church had opened but the funeral was still going on. I walked around a bit more but it was too cold and I felt like a vulture waiting for the funeral to finish so called it quits and went back to the apartment. I will have to try again tomorrow before we leave tomorrow morning.

Christian was up so we had another bottle of wine then headed out for dinner. We went to the Blue Bar first and were sad that we hadn’t been hitting the bar every night. The bartender was entertaining and even picked up his guitar and serenaded us a bit. We had a few drinks, Aperol Spritz, then headed to dinner. It wasn’t our best choice but it was okay. I had a tortellini with meat sauce but it could have used a bit more sauce. It did feel very authentic we seemed to be the only English speakers in the room.

We walked home in the cold and worked on our packing some. The bags were heavy and out of balance and I needed to do better if I was going to get them down the stairs in the morning. Turned out it was an early night.

As I said, I had been to Orvieto before and thought it was super cute and had a lot of stores and seemed relatively big. However, it is way smaller than I remember. It has a lot of restaurants and some stores but not a lot. It also has only 3 taxis. One who never answers, one has their car in the shop and one I can’t seem to find. I thought we would be able to get out to the vineyards but that is not working out. There are a lot of tours but they all require you to have your own transportation. So that seems to be off the table. We are doing a good job of tasting the local wine just around town so I guess it is all good.

Anyway we had no plans for the day. We slept in a bit so off to a late start. I got in the shower expecting the water to warm up but it never did. I don’t take super hot showers but this was freezing. I washed my hair only because I had to but thought I was going to freeze before it was over. Unlike in Florence when we texted the host about the smoke detector, this host responded right back quickly came over and brought in help when she couldn’t fix it. Just about an hour later the hot water was back on and Christina got to take a comfortable shower. Much better service in orvieto than Florence.

We head out for breakfast/ lunch and found a cute little restaurant and decide to have a leisurely lunch. We order a cheese plate and a bottle of wine to start. The cheese plate has a few very interesting cheeses neither of which I cared for. One appeared to be very aged Parmesan the other no telling but it was earthy like a blue cheese but super hard and crumbly. We did our best and then moved on to pasta and a sandwich. Orvieto seems to be a pork region so I tried the porchetta sandwich the waiter suggested and Christina had a mushroom pasta. Both were very good and we finished off our bottle of wine with a pear ricotta cheesecake also very good.

After lunch we wandered the town and shopped a bit. There are a few pottery stores but both are pretty small, a leather store that is open and that is about it. I don’t need another purse but there is a cute one I have my eye on which I will likely buy before leaving town. It starts to really rain so we decide to buy a few bottles of wine and head up to the apartment and wait it out.

We still need to pay for the stay so we also make arrangements for the host to meet us at 3:45. She is right on time and brings us a bottle of wine for the hot water issue.

It is still raining so we decide we should take a nap. Not a normal vacation activity for me but we have been on the go since we arrived and a lazy afternoon sounds great.

We didn’t sleep long just about 1:30 then we regrouped and opened a bottle of wine. We are both getting better with the old school wine opener. We decide to head out for dinner at 7 and walked down to Le Grotto del Funaro. We basically ate in a cave.

Dinner was really good I did both a first and second course so going way more local. Even had the local suckling pig for my main course. Not that I didn’t enjoy it but it was not my favorite. The potatoes however were delicious.

After dinner it was cold and we hurried back to the apartment. although paused to take some photos of the floating clock.

Our stay in Florence has come to an end. Which is likely for the best since we need to quit shopping or will never get our suitcases on the plane. We have had great weather for the start of the trip but now it looks like nothing but rain. Rain yesterday in Lucca wasn’t so bad but dealing with luggage on a move day will not be fun in the rain.

Our apartment was in the no vehicle area but we had seen taxis drive through so ever hopeful that we could get door to door service. Sadly that was not to be. We tried Uber which has limited use in Florence but they wanted to meet off the Main Street which was farther than the side street around at the back of the duomo. I took our trash out and saw several taxis at the taxi stand so I thought we should just go there. We lugged our luggage through the rain to the taxi waiting at the stand. It was empty. We waited several minutes (felt like hours) getting drenched on the side of the street. Several taxis passed but all had passengers. I guess everyone wanted a ride on a rainy morning. So back to Uber. We got the same driver who I canceled earlier because of where he wanted to pick us up but I thought it would be better this time since now we were standing by a road instead of in the pedestrian area. But no he went back to his original pick up suggestion and we waited even longer for him to get around to us. So moral of the story take the first ride and go where they want you to. It was a bit farther but we would have spent way less time in the rain.

Hoping that our adventures were over for the day we caught our train to Orvieto. I suggested and picked Orvieto because it is a white wine region and I remembered it as being super cute when I visited briefly for lunch back in 2004. Well it is a little smaller than I thought and so the travel mis-adventure continues.

The train went smoothly and we arrived to Orvieto somewhat dry. We follow the signs to the taxi stand but no taxis. I try to call for a taxi get a recording and nothing else. The women selling train tickets were exceptionally unhelpful and offered no assistance. Our apartment was right by the duomo so I went to ask the bus driver if he went to the duomo but no he did not. He at least told me to ride the funicular up and take a bus to the duomo up there. I also here from the apartment host who suggest we take the funicular and bus so I go get Christina and we lug our luggage across the parking to the funicular and buy our tickets. It had been raining but now it was pouring.

From the funicular the bus was easy and pulled up soon after we arrived. Several kids were waiting obviously for another bus but didn’t stop them from blocking the door. I am sure Christina and I were entertaining as we hauled our bags onto the bus. Good thing we didn’t have to walk because it was straight up. We would have never made it. It was bad enough getting there from the Duomo.

We’re soaked our bags are soaked but we have found the apartment and are inside. Now we just have to make it up two flights of stairs. I really thought we were going to die but we made it. Workout complete for the week.

The apartment is nice and clean and has a great view of the Duomo. We clean up a bit and head downstairs to the bar that is right below us and order a bottle of white. They saw us dragging our suitcases so maybe they felt sorry for us because he gave us a slice of pizza. We also got the standard potato chips and peanuts to munch on. Potato chips seem to be the going snack for wine drinking in Italy. We enjoy the bottle so order another and continue to recoup from the stressful travel day.

After our wine snack we head out to see a bit of the town. It has gotten dark and some things are closed but we find a few stores to visit before heading to dinner. The restaurant was a little strange so we got a pizza and a little more wine. We could have bought cups with our names on them but sadly no Rebecca or Christina. We considered picking Italian names but in the end we decided we did not need something else to carry home.

Our host met us back at the apartment to show us how everything worked an ask for payment. Always read the fine print on booking. It said pay the owner but I did not realize it had to be cash. We just barely have enough cash to pay. We shopped too much in the Florence markets.

The long travel day is over we have a bottle of white and we are finishing a bag of chips and some chocolate we brought from Florence. Alls well that ends well.

Fingers crossed the next travel day goes better. We have hired a driver to take us to our Rome airport hotel so hopefully that will go smoothly.

For our last day in Tuscany we decided to train out to a smaller town have lunch and wander around. Abrezzo and Lucca are both about the same distance on the train so both were good options. I am considering both as long term spots for my future retirement so either were good options for visiting. We went with Lucca as it seemed smaller and as a medieval walled city we figured just walking around town would be nice.

I got up a little early this morning to check out the washing machine. I of course have gotten something on most of my clothes which need to be worn again. There are two kinds of soap. One says something like kills bacteria and the other looks like old style washing detergent. The machine is little so I just add a small amount of both and hope for the best. The stains have all been treated with the tide stick so I think it should work. I figure I have all day for them to dry before I have to pack them so I think it will work. I start the washer and 2:11 blinks at me. I have no idea if it means 2 hours to wash the clothes or if that is something else entirely. I don’t like appliances that have pictures instead of words and now I am regretting my arrogance. Hopefully that they will be finished before Christina gets up I check in them every 15 minutes or so. At the beginning the display didn’t seem to be associated with time as it didn’t seem to be going down minute by minute so I was worried it would never get done. Finally about the time Christina woke up the display said 1 then beeped and turned off. Pulled out my clothes and they were dry and the stains all still there. First thought was that it hadn’t done anything but I know I saw water. Now I am aggravated because I wouldn’t have dried them if the stains hadn’t come out. So lesson learned get your phone and check the translation before using appliances. Now I am going to have to wear clothes with stains on them the rest of the trip.

We didn’t get an early start and barely made it to Lucca for lunch. Christina scoured the web and found a place that was opened past 2. Our train arrived in Lucca at 1:30 and we headed out for lunch. It was starting to rain when we headed out and both of us left our umbrellas behind in the apartment but we thought we might be okay with just our rain jackets. The walk to lunch was not horrible, we got a little wet but not bad.

The place Christina found, Cafe GiGi was super cute and the food was delicious. We had a tomato and cheese appetizer and then Christina had the macaroni with tomato sauce and I had the gnocchi with sun dried tomatoes and cream sauce. Macaroni in Italy is not the same as America. It was just like flat lasagna noodles only smaller. Other than the table with small children beside us lunch was quite enjoyable.

After lunch it was really raining and we wished we had bought the large umbrellas at the train station. Thankfully, the grocery store in the same square as GiGi had small umbrellas. Twenty three euros later we back out wandering the town.

Lucca is a really cute small town with lots of shops to wander through. Being a rainy day in January not all we’re opened but enough were for Christina and I to do some damage. We found a chocolate shop a cashmere store and shoes. We both came back with scarves, loafers and chocolate. Fingers crossed they fit in our luggage.

The train ride ride back was uneventful. It was dark outside so you could not see out the windows. With nothing to look at we played on our phones. It wasn’t raining to hard so we decided to walk back to the apartment one last time. We had a lot to pack so we stopped for some sandwiches and a bottle of Prosecco and headed in.

I think we bought too much. Our bags are packed and bulging. Not sure we can buy anything in Orvieto but I know that is not going to happen. Maybe we will find a post office and ship some things home.

For our last day in Tuscany we decided to train out to a smaller town have lunch and wander around. Abrezzo and Lucca are both about the same distance on the train so both were good options. I am considering both as long term spots for my future retirement so either were good options for visiting. We went with Lucca as it seemed smaller and as a medieval walled city we figured just walking around town would be nice.

I got up a little early this morning to check out the washing machine. I of course have gotten something on most of my clothes which need to be worn again. There are two kinds of soap. One says something like kills bacteria and the other looks like old style washing detergent. The machine is little so I just add a small amount of both and hope for the best. The stains have all been treated with the tide stick so I think it should work. I figure I have all day for them to dry before I have to pack them so I think it will work. I start the washer and 2:11 blinks at me. I have no idea if it means 2 hours to wash the clothes or if that is something else entirely. I don’t like appliances that have pictures instead of words and now I am regretting my arrogance. Hopefully that they will be finished before Christina gets up I check in them every 15 minutes or so. At the beginning the display didn’t seem to be associated with time as it didn’t seem to be going down minute by minute so I was worried it would never get done. Finally about the time Christina woke up the display said 1 then beeped and turned off. Pulled out my clothes and they were dry and the stains all still there. First thought was that it hadn’t done anything but I know I saw water. Now I am aggravated because I wouldn’t have dried them if the stains hadn’t come out. So lesson learned get your phone and check the translation before using appliances. Now I am going to have to wear clothes with stains on them the rest of the trip.

We didn’t get an early start and barely made it to Lucca for lunch. Christina scoured the web and found a place that was opened past 2. Our train arrived in Lucca at 1:30 and we headed out for lunch. It was starting to rain when we headed out and both of us left our umbrellas behind in the apartment but we thought we might be okay with just our rain jackets. The walk to lunch was not horrible, we got a little wet but not bad.

The place Christina found, Cafe GiGi was super cute and the food was delicious. We had a tomato and cheese appetizer and then Christina had the macaroni with tomato sauce and I had the gnocchi with sun dried tomatoes and cream sauce. Macaroni in Italy is not the same as America. It was just like flat lasagna noodles only smaller. Other than the table with small children beside us lunch was quite enjoyable.

After lunch it was really raining and we wished we had bought the large umbrellas at the train station. Thankfully, the grocery store in the same square as GiGi had small umbrellas. Twenty three euros later we back out wandering the town.

Lucca is a really cute small town with lots of shops to wander through. Being a rainy day in January not all we’re opened but enough were for Christina and I to do some damage. We found a chocolate shop a cashmere store and shoes. We both came back with scarves, loafers and chocolate. Fingers crossed they fit in our luggage.

The train ride ride back was uneventful. It was dark outside so you could not see out the windows. With nothing to look at we played on our phones. It wasn’t raining to hard so we decided to walk back to the apartment one last time. We had a lot to pack so we stopped for some sandwiches and a bottle of Prosecco and headed in.

I think we bought too much. Our bags are packed and bulging. Not sure we can buy anything in Orvieto but I know that is not going to happen. Maybe we will find a post office and ship some things home.

Sunday got off to a late start but all was well since Florence is also a little slow on Sunday. The crowds are here but several things seem to be closed. We tried to do a cooking class but they didn’t seem to work out with our schedule or what we wanted to eat. So we just planned on having a long lunch and hitting the flea market, food market and perhaps the vendors for a few more trinkets.

We started at the cafe with the extra large cappuccino that Christina likes and then headed out. We walked back to the flea market and once again it was a wasted trip. Everything said it would be open but completely shut down. It didn’t look like it would be open at all in January. In the light of day the neighborhood didn’t look as bad as it did the first night we walked down (by night I mean 5 it gets dark early in Italy). However, nothing really to look at so we were just collecting steps.

From the market we headed back to the train station area to go through the vendor stalls again. Christina wanted to look at a sweater but unlike yesterday we only found one vendor selling it and he would not bargain so we walked away. I bought a few things but with fewer people out the vendors seemed more aggressive and we decided we had enough.

It was time for lunch so we tried the food market. The market area was closed but the food court was open. We were too late, it was a madhouse with people circling like vultures for any open seats. Although things looked delicious we were not up for the craziness and headed back out to search for a restaurant

We checked around the square and found one that looked good and took seats inside. One thing very different in Italy is that they cram tables in everywhere and separate four tops to two with only a few inches between. Our table was against the wall and they pulled out the other two seats and sat another table right beside us. An Italian couple set down and he proceeded to make anything I have ever seen an American do seem like nothing. The tables were not level and rocked quite a bit. He was very bothered with this and proceeded to shake the table like a child. He also kept his chair pushed way out so that people could hardly get around.

Regardless of our obnoxious neighbors the lunch was one of our better. We started with a cheese plate and then split pasta and pizza. We had truffle sauce on our pasta and a vegetable pizza. Both were tasty and went well with our bottle of white. First bottle of the day.

After lunch we wandered a bit more then headed to the Hotel Cavour. We had reservations for drinks at the hotels rooftop terrace. The hotel is just blocks down from the Doumo so the views from the terrace were amazing. We enjoyed our second bottle of white taking in the rooftops of Florence.

Drinks were a little (ok really pricey) so we just had the one bottle and headed out. Even though the sun was setting it was only 5 and a little too early for dinner. We were really close to the apartment but decided that if we went up we would likely not come back down so we set out to find a bar for a few drinks. In Treviso every restaurant was a bar between 5-7 and packed with groups drinking. Not so much in Florence at least not in the touristy areas. So we stopped in one of the restaurants around the duomo and had another bottle of wine. Bottle number 3 if your counting.

The restaurant had a few other tables and the food didn’t look all that good so we headed back towards the hotel Cavour for the ones we had seen earlier. We picked one and got seated right by the hanging side of beef. Christina was not impressed. However. the food was really good. We had bruschetta and a Greek salad. Then Christina had chicken with mushroom sauce and I had pasta with sausage. All this with a bottle of white. Which was bottle four that led to a bottle of Prosecco and dessert.

Maybe the last bottle of Prosecco was one bottle too many. It was a good thing we didn’t have far to go and it was a straight shot back to the apartment. For some reason we found the scaffolding around the duomo very funny and couldn’t quit laughing. We thought it looked like they ran out of materials and installed some Home Depot doors to finish out the work. We texted the photo out to several people so I apologize if you received it. We had much better pictures from the day but somehow this one was worthy to be sent as a text.

Thankfully we made it back to the apartment and quickly called it a night. One more day in Florence until we head out to Orvieto.

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.