Verre Pella Firenze

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Having done all the major sights (or at least all the ones I was willing to do), I basically just wandered the streets and markets of Florence today. Florence is famous for its leather, and there's a huge outdoor market near P. San Lorenzo with just about everything you can imagine, but a heavy emphasis on leather. Being a market, suffice it to say that you better know what you're looking for and what it's roughly worth. The Busabout recommended shop (Leonardo's) had great quality stuff, but was incredibly expensive. It was useful in giving me an idea of what I wanted though. In the end, I got a medium sized leather jewelry box and a leather wallet as gifts. The leather jewelry box I know I got a decent deal on. I'm still not 100% sure if the leather wallet is real; I have my fingers crossed I didn't get a fast one pulled on me.

Afterwards, I cheated and took a bus up to Piazza Michelangelo, which is on a hill in Oltrarno (the south bank of the Arno). The lookout provided spectacular views of historical Florence, but unfortunately provided another reminder of just how much superior our eyes are to cameras, especially compact digital ones. I was ready to pull my hair out trying to get a shot of the city and me with a very unfortunate setting sun behind us both. With a proper (read: capable of full manual) camera, I'd have known exactly what settings to use: AP, f/8, metered on the city, flash thrown for my person, negative flash exposure compensation at about -1 stop to make the the foreground look more naturally lit. On another note, everyone there was quite annoyed by the presence of a Contiki tour. Boy am I glad I didn't go with them. The correct word to describe them is "the mob". I was just thinking to myself how you get to experience Europe when the tour literally just takes over wherevery they go?

For dinner, I decided to splurge and ate at a guidebook recommendation that was on the south bank as well. Borgo Antico, located right in Piazza Santo Spirito, was worth every euro cent of the €25 I ended up spending. Primi was fresh ravioli with spinach and cheese. It was in what I think was a saffron sauce, and I swear I had died and gone to heaven. The secondi of roast lamb wasn't bad either. To top things off, the company was interesting. I was sitting next to a family, and ended up chatting them up. The husband and wife pair were both intellectual property lawyers in London. The husband was on sabbatical and taking an art history course in Florence for a month. They finished before me, and had me pondering for quite a while. The legal profession in Canada isn't exactly famed for its friendly hours, and I just hope that a couple of years down the line, I'll have both the money, and more importantly, the time to just go out to experience and learn new things.

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Photos

Florence and its Emblem
To think that I almost didn't go up to Piazza Michaelangelo...

Me and Florence
I definitely like this city. They should have put the Trevi Fountain here. I'd have happily tossed every coin I had on me in.

Ponte Vecchio at Dusk
The walk to dinner along the Arno had some nice views.