Florence

Florence

Naples is a beautiful city to be sure with great shopping; stunning museums and wonderful food but it does show the scares of economic decay. Graffiti adorns block after block of ancient walls and litter is thrown in the gutters to collect in wind blown corners. By contrast Florence gleams under the Tucson sun. A smaller city and a bit slower paced I found Florence relaxing, a vibrant city with a small town feel.

Our Apartment lay outside the city center on Via Ugo Foscolo. Apartment rental can be a great alternative to hotels if you do your research and read the reviews carefully. 

Yes, this is the view from our apartment

This place was a gem, about a five minute walk to local shops and a grocery and twenty minutes to the main shopping district the Domo and museums. And the view was, well see for yourself.

I know this may sound strange to some but I was happy to get access to kitchen and a chance to cook. Just down the street I found the grocery, the butcher, the cheese shop and the vino vender. Wine on tap, just deposit thirty cents for the bottle and the most expensive wine is four and a half Euros, delisioso. I did have one snafu as I struggled to order things with my vocabulary of twelve Italian words. At the butcher I found chicken marinated in herbs and olive oil that looked perfect for the pesto pasta I was planning. 

So I quickly ordered one, one kilo that is. Now I know a kilo is more than I needed but at that moment fractions where out of the question. So I took my two and quarter pounds of chicken home to make a light dinner for two.

We woke to a blue sky and cool breeze through the open windows. A cappuccino and a croissant are just about my favorite breakfast and the mile walk into town passes at least a dozen shops and cafes that serve this most perfect of combinations. Crossing the Fiume  Arno (main river in town) we pass the shops lining the Ponte Vecchio (bridge lined with jewelry shops). If you not shopper get there early to watch the heavy ornate wooden doors and iron hinged window coverings being opened and the merchants preparing for the day. A ritual of shopping that dates back hundreds of years.