Florence 29 Sept

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Florence - September 29

(Geoff) Today, being Monday, most museums were closed so we hit the shops. We had noticed that just a little way away from our hotel was a central market, where you could select your wares and haggle over the price (Hey John, just like Phuket!) So we girded our loins for a major outing and proceeded to the markets. Most of the stores were very similar to what we had already seen but we had been advised that one of the leather stores was very good and wold shift their prices if pushed.

We spent a good hour and a half in the shop trying stuff on. This was where the stores hit back as Sue was in the wrong place at the wrong time and one of the heavier store dummies collapsed and landed on her foot. It was like we were back in Scotland, with Sue dancing the Jig around and around the store. The staff were very apologetic and vowed that they would reduce their prices to the bare minimum to survive (on the lives of their mothers, children, wives, fathers, brothers, etc! - you get the picture). So with Sue supervising (foot elevated and iced), I proceeded to walk the catwalk of leather fashion for her. We eventually managed to find some stuff that suited and haggled as hard as we could (including Sue's buggered foot in the negotiations) to strike a deal.

After our bargain hunt, we dropped our buys at the hotel and grabbed the camera for a photo tour of the centre of Florence, including the Cathedral (the Duomo). There are some amazing sights near our hotel and the churches and basilicae here are, as always, amazingly decorated both inside and out.

We found a little trattoria for lunch in the Piazza Del Republica (lots of statuary here that was quite impressive, even if they are copies of the originals now housed in museums) that provided a quite nice lunch but at a quite nice price too! - the view always costs and once again sitting down costs a service charge!

Having exceeded our budget in the morning, we decided to window shop on our way back to the hotel and then yours truly had the obligatory siesta while Sue rested her foot. Hopefully she will be alright tomorrow, to drag the bags to the train station otherwise I am up for multiple trips to get ready for our overnight train trip to France.

So one more day in Florence, and hopefully a look at some of the works of Da Vinci before we head to the Loire Valley and then Paris.

Ciao for today.

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Comments

[Bob]

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Obviously the shopping Gods are punishing someone.