Some people bring luggage, we bring rain.

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When we got up this morning the forecast for Florence was 80 and sunny. Yeah! After schlepping our suitcases up two flights of stairs to catch the right train, about 10 minutes before the train was due, a clerk came rushing out of the station, yelling "to Pisa, track 2 not 3" with great waving of arms. So with the dozens of other folks, went carried the bags down and up again. We got on the first train and within an hour it got very overcast and the forecast had changed to 80% chance of rain by 3 o'clock. Is there a rain cloud following us? We'll get to Florence about noon, ditch our bags and head to the market and the photography museum and I'll change into sneakers and socks and bring my rain poncho.

The apartment in Florence is great. To begin with there is an elevator which is a big deal when the apartment is on the the 2nd (3rd US) floor, the ceilings are 12 - 15', and the suitcases are heavy. The owner bought the apartment in 2012 and completely renovated it. Everything is top quality with great style. He stocks the frig with prosecco and there is a washer /dryer and steam shower. It is in the middle of the old city so the location couldn't be better. While the owner finished the cleaning, we headed over to the Mercato to buy some food for dinner, fresh pasta and sauce, shrimp and salad. By the time we dropped the food back at the apartment it was pretty overcast. After Venice, rain here was nothing to write home about. We got a quick bite and heading toward the Photography museum. We ended up Nouvau Centro, Florence's modern art museum to ask directions and were told the Photography Museum closed two years ago. All my guide books and the internet made it look like it still existed. Since we were at this museum we decided to explore. There were at least 20 people working at this small museum and I think we were the only guests which felt very strange. A lot of the more contemporary art and the video exhibition were too hip for us. The art from the first half of the 20th century was more to our liking. I would only recommend it to someone who is really into the radical, modern art scene (just liking modern art isn't enough, you need to be in the "scene").

When we were done, Jack's back was bothering him so he headed back to the apartment to relax and I wandered. I want to buy a leather bag here so I simply put one foot in front of another and went wherever the spirit moved me looking in shops when there was something interesting in the window. It was nice to be on a lot of side streets without tourists. Many of these streets are lined with medieval buildings. We had dinner in and then went for gelato. I stuck with pistachio and nicoletta.....a great combination.

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