Day 39

Tuesday September 4

7:45amish - woke up, blahblahblah

9:00am - went to breakfast.

9:30am - set out to find the Cascine Park market - supposedly very good and only on Tuesday mornings. Well. It was pouring. POURING. I thought my umbrella would be enough. It was not. I got on the D bus and went out pretty much to the end and would walk the rest of the way. Well. Great plan in nice weather. Not great in not nice weather. Walked part of the way there and was so wet (I mean, my pants were wet from top to bottom and my feet were squishing. Seriously. Not good.), I couldn't do it anymore. Really wanted to see this market, but I wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway. Waited for a bus when I saw a stop. Got off at the station and waited for one of the buses that would take me to the hotel.

10:30amish - made it back to the hotel and changed. Felt so good to be dry LOL. Dried out and stuff for a while and went back out.

11:30am - took the D bus a few stops to the Pitti Palace. Bought both tickets - one to see the apartments of the palace and the other to see the treasury and gardens - 20.50 euros total. Ouch. Really they should have a single ticket that will get you into everything. But whatever. It was indoors. LOL. The apartments were nice, different from the ones before because of all the Renaissance art plastered all over the walls. Every ceiling was ornate, the next one more so than the last. Very pretty. Finished seeing this and quickly walked through the modern art gallery included on that ticket. As much as I am not a fan of art, I am less a fan of modern art, I was there maybe 10 min tops LOL.

12:30pm - went to a little place near the Palace called La Mangiatoia or something like that. They had really cheap food. The waiter was really nice. When I attempted to order, he says, where are you from? And I'm like, DUDE THIS GUY IS BRITISH LOL!!! So I tell him from the US and I say where are YOU From. And then he tells me his life story about living half his life in Italy and blahblah and then after I order he comes back and tells me all about how he's moving to Seattle and all these things. It was pretty funny LOL. I had pasta and roasted chicken. Both very good and probably too much food - the chicken was a quarter chicken and was very tasty and juicy and tender. Total for everything including soda and cover was 11 euros, left 12 on the table. And of course, the sun was out and skies were blue.

1:15pm - went back to the palace. Went to the Treasury and saw all the silver and gold stuff and the jewels. There was one crown that was diamonds and huge purple stones. It was amazingly beautiful. Went through this and out to the Boboli Gardens. Also beautiful, but uphill lol. Walked up and tried to find the Bardini gardens - I was walking uphill on the side of a hill (great views of the city, but still not so fun for a heights-hater like myself lol), finally I saw signs for it. Found the building and a lady asked to see my ticket and then I try to find the gardens and… I'm not sure I ever actually did. I started going down this windy gravelled path down to the city, whatever. My feet were hurting at this point of course and I was annoyed, and had no choice but to walk lol. So finally I ended up at this empty building. I was like, am I supposed to be here? But I didn't see anywhere else to GO. Finally I reached the ground level and there was a girl setting at the desk. I just walked out and saw on the sign outside the door "Bardini Gardens" or whatever. OK so I HAD been in the right place. Still no idea what I saw or did or where I was. Ah well, it was an… experience LOL.

3:00pm ish - I ended up near Ponte alle Grazie so I decided to go over the bridge back to Santa Croce area. Found the famous Vivoli gelato place and got a little cup of chocolate "ricci" (dunno what that means) and coffee. Very good but the one I stumbled upon was better, and a bigger cup for less money.

3:30pmish - Went to the Santa Croce church just a block or so away. Entry is 5 euros but it's more like a museum than a church. Statues by Donatello, tombs of people like Michelangelo and Galileo among others, some famous chapels, etc. I actually spent a good bit of time there seeing everything. Very pretty. But OMG, right at the entrance it SO CLEARLY SAYS NO FLASH PHOTOS. And SO MANY PEOPLE TOOK FLASH PHOTOS. I don't know why this annoys me so much but gosh, it is just so disrespectful, not to mention the fact that the flash actually ruins the art.

4:45pmish - Anyway, I was going to catch the bus back to the hotel for a while before dinner. After wandering around, I realized that the buses take a different route back than they do going from the hotel because of all the narrow one-way streets and such. So I make it back to the river and cross the Ponte alle Grazie and a bus whizzes by me (there are 3 or so that would take me back to the hotel). Then another. Then a third. So I've missed all 3 and they only run about every 15 minutes give or take. I actually get to a stop and see that they've all arrived early! Ah well. I decide to just keep walking, there was nowhere to sit so standing there waiting would be just as painful for my feet than carrying on walking.

5:00pmish - barely able to move my feet :p got back to the hotel. Someone new there, well, new to me. She hands me my key as I walk in. WTF. These people are psychic :p So I just chill, relax, look up restaurants online for later, etc.

6:45pm - go get on the D bus to Ponte Vecchio. Stay on the same side of the river as the hotel (the south side). Go a very short way to the Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco (white boar), which was spoken so highly of on TripAdvisor. OK it's a little bit of a nicer place, but I'm entitled sometimes. Plus… … … THEY HAD PRIME RIB ON THE MENU. Game over. Place is so cute inside. I was there early, right before 7, so it was empty (but I thought I'd have to get there super early to be able to get into this place from what I had read). Great service, the guys were nice. When one game to get my order he asks in Italian and I say meekly "do you speak English?" and he says "yes but I speak Italian better" LOL!! So I had that (16 euros for a nice cut of tasty beef about an inch thick, with delicious CRISPY roasted SKINLESS potatoes!) and water and "fettunta" aka a fancy italian name for delicious garlic bread drenched in unbelievable olive oil. Next to me were these two adorable older ladies who had just arrived. They're from Santa Fe. One was named Lois (SERIOUSLY MOTHER STOP FOLLOWING ME AROUND PLEASE THANKS :p), the other Miriam. They were so funny and very nice. We chatted throughout our meals. At the end they put 2 cover charges on my bill (an extra 2 euros, but still), and I ask the guy and he says "but you are only one!" and laughs. Fixed it no problem. Total 23.50, ok expensive, but it was PRIME RIB :D So naturally, one of the better meals I've had on the whole trip.

8:15pm - leave restaurant and walk back to the bus stop (about a 1 min walk), sit and wait for about 10 min. While I'm waiting, these two guys at the base of the ponte vecchio who are selling some crap on a couple sheets scurry and pack up their stuff and run away. Then I see two cops come down the bridge. LOL! I forgot to write about it but I saw the exact same thing happen yesterday when I was waiting for the Duomo to open. I wonder why, maybe selling on the street like that is illegal even if you're not selling knock-offs. Either way it was funny. Yesterday, the cops were on motorcycle so if they had wanted to catch the guys they could obviously have done so, but they didn't. Interesting for sure. Anyway, bus came at 8:25 and took it to the hotel in about 5 min.

9:30pm - laundry time :( And I have a lot to do too.

11:00pm - should be going to bed early because I want to try to go to Siena by bus earlyish tomorrow, but we'll see LOL