A day trip tomorrow...

and today was just a kind of lazy, pleasant, enjoyable day.  I started out and today was just a kind of lazy, pleasant, enjoyable day.  I started out with a  hot shower which was pretty much bliss.  Then got myself downstairs in time to have a bit of breakfast. I'm not a big fan of most of the breakfasts I have in my travels but I like having a pot of tea in the morning.

Next I gathered up my laundry and walked down to the laundromat that is quite close to the hotel.  The young man there was sure better than the old grouch who was there when I check it out yesterday so that was nice.  He got the washer started and I don't really remember what I did for the next 30 minutes or so.  Had quite a lengthy conversation with the lady at the hotel desk and finally had to tell her I needed to get back to my laundry.  But before I left I asked her about this:

I had noticed it each time I came into the building.  It's a very deep excavation site and they've made it much more attractive than it looks here.  But it was once a well centuries ago.

It was late enough by then that I thought I would walk down and across the river and eat at a place I've eaten at before.  It was in Santo Spirito Plaza and my first trip to Florence, I stayed on the Oltrano side of the Arno River and that's where the plaza is. So it was a goodly walk with so many people - I'm always still stunned by it.  But I finally got there and as soon as I sat here came this huge bunch of bread with black olive tapenade and bits of hot pepper in it.  Ate some even though I always wish the Tuscans would say "aw to heck with it, it's not the 15th century, we can afford salt, let's start putting it in our bread" but they don't...

I ordered an appetizer that said breasola with goat cheese and something else after asking the girl what breasola was - because I never could get a real translation of it.  It turns out it is a cured beef and is sliced very thin and was very good.  Whatever they did with the cheese made it super tasty.  I also ordered a salad with lettuce of course, and then white tuna, egg, pine nuts (lots of them) and egg all with a doctored mayonnaise dressing and I was surprised at how tasty it was.  Oh and it had raisins in it too... Had a glass of red with it which was a nice one.

So when that was all over I went and sat on one of the benches in the Santo Spirito Plaza.  This is where I came to sit and cry the first day of my first trip when I sprained my ankle.  It was also where I had my first (and best so far) bowl of ribollita soup.

 I liked the hanging out upper stories on the building on the right and also the very narrow and not so heavily populated street!

This really caught my eye.  I love ivory and if this is really ivory I would think it would cost a fortune because it would have to be an antique in addition to be ivory because supposedly no one is allowed to bring ivory into the country anymore.

And to my kids I say we probably should do this don't you think?  We could all use it for a month or so here and there and then have an agent who could keep it rented out for us.  The first one is actually not that big a price for three people to split, right?  Especially with it bringing in income.  Give it some thought and let me know whaat you decide. :)

 And just a shot of the very calm Arno River 

So I wandered on towards "home" and by the time I got back up to the Duomo area, it was about 6:30, the light was changing and so was the look of the Duomo and bell tower, to wit:

And that's pretty much it.  Didn't get hungry enough for dinner so just stayed in.  I've got my trip to Prato tomorrow and then I bought the tickets to the violin concert I mentioned in a previous post and that will be Wednesday evening.  I talked with an English or American lady downstairs today.  She reminded me of the kind of woman Henry James wrote about or someone wrote about - older gentlewomen who travel extensively and know a bit more than everyone else about everywhere they've traveled.  But she was pleasant and I told her about the concert and the music that would be playing and she didn't know about that and I said if she wanted to we could meet up and go together.  I doubt if she will though, she's traveling with a friend who she "would check with" and even if they did decide to they'd have no way of contacting me to let me know.  Anyway, I'm looking forwaard to it.

Then on Thursday comes the wine tour and I sure hope we have good weather for that.  And I may try and work in one more day trip to somewhere. :)  Although I still need to have dinner at Enzo & Piero and hopefully a restaurant that Chris and I ate at that's at the base of the steep climb to San Miniato.

Buona sera!