We had an off day today in Florence, our only free one of the trip. It was also Mother’s Day, and I was able to give my mom a call early in the morning (US time).
I spent the day with Allison basically exploring Florence. We went on a walk in the morning through a dog park (she loves dogs) and wondered through local free market shops, which had a lot of leather bags and belts, among other things.
Allison bought a scarf from one of the shops on the street, where everyone tries to negotiate prices with you and some of the materials are not as real as they seem. To test this, I decided to check out a leather briefcase that didn’t seem too legitimate.
I asked the vendor to inspect a black briefcase. You could tell he had experience as a salesman. He pulled out all of the packaging materials and opened every compartment. He let me feel the bag, smell the bag, and then did the traditional flame test. That’s done by holding up a lighter to leather to see if it is real or not – fake leather will catch on fire.
I did a little research on that method afterward, and it seems like it works, but it still could be fake leather even with a flame. Anyways – He then let me hold the bag and then gave me his price of €150.
I said no that’s way too much – because it was. He offered a different color for €140. I declined again and tried to walk away. Finally, he gave in and asked me what my price was.
“€5,” I said with a smile.
He walked away and moved on to his next potential buyer.
After browsing some more shops, we stopped at a nice restaurant for lunch. I had rigatoni with bolognese sauce, which was pretty fulfilling. We went back to the hotel to enjoy the pool and sauna for a little bit. After that, we went across town on the opposite side of the river to explore that end of the city. The bridges in Venice are historic, photogenic, and absolutely gorgeous.
The biggest thing about Florence – and really all of Italy – when it comes to architecture, you can tell that the builders valued time, quality and perfection. Our tour guide pointed this out to us yesterday, and it’s obvious at every turn.
There are lions and pieces of art everywhere in Florence. That’s how they communicated with each other – with sculptures, paintings, and facades.
Anywho – as we finished walking around, we stopped in a Lindt store – the makers of Lindor Truffles just to browse.
Oops.
They gave us a free milk chocolate truffle.
Then they led us to the gelato.
Then I had a milk chocolate / dark chocolate gelato in my possession. That
was one of the better decisions I made in Florence.
We then went to dinner at a pizzeria by our hotel and relaxed for a little bit there. Later in the night, we went to a 50’s American Diner to taste test what their version of American food was like. I had a cheeseburger with french fries. The burger seemed like meat that wasn’t meant to be on a burger, but the fries were great – just not salty. That place was the first we discovered with Heinz products – from ranch to barbecue sauce to ketchup.
We are traveling in the morning to Venice by bus and train, where we will spend the day. After that, we will spend the rest of our time in Milan.
Ciao!
