Saturday...a lost day?

No, I think I've finally figured it all out.  My days have really run together on this trip and I get confused on where I am in my journaling.  Like today is Sunday and I have to scratch my head fairly vigorously to figure out what I did on Saturday.  But some of it came back to me although nothing involving pictures.  Oops, I found a few - all trying to give an idea of how pretty the pink and green is with the white marble.  So here they are first:

Just magnificent I think.

I took those on my walk down to what I call the "hole in the wall" place to get a sandwich and glass of wine there.  It gets busier every year that I've been going but with just 2 people, they manage to work fast enough that the wait doesn't seem too terribly long.  You wait in the street (the line is not as long as the line waiting to get into the Duomo!) and finally get up to the hole in the wall.  It's an opening in the wall and one man stands over to one side making whatever sandwich has been ordered while the other man is taking an order from the next person and then taking the now made sandwich and putting in a special paper holder.  And then here's your drink and "next!"  And the thing is, they're not at all grouchy - they smile at you, answer a question if you have one and the sandwiches are the best I've had in Florence because they're made fresh with incredibly good bread and ingredients.  I always got ham and cheese and this time I branched out and got roast pork with a parsley sauce and came fairly close to finishing it and they are huge!  That and the nice glass of quite decent wine  came to 6 euros and held me til my 7:30 dinner date.  And see that's why when I make a trip I'm always pulled to Florence - the Duomo, Enzo e Piero, Perque, No? gelato, and "the hole in the wall".

But this time it's official...if I come to Italy again, I will do like I did when I went to Sicily (and I wouldn't mind going there again).  I'll stay in some other region, city, whatever and make an overnight stop in Florence to enjoy those 4 favorite things.  The crowds have just become unbelievable here and that takes some of the pleasure out of being here.  But I could stay further out in Tuscany somewhere and come up to Florence in the morning, stay the night and leave the next late afternoon and be quite happy with that.

And I feel like I must have done more than just eat - but I'm sure not remembering it.  I know I got Friday's post finished but that's as far as my brain is taking me tonight.  And now it's Sunday night and I have the majority of my stuff packed and will work up my nerve to ask at the front desk if someone can help me get it downstairs.  It was heavy coming here - it will be heavier leaving!

Buona sera!!