San Lorenzo Market - Florence's Central Market

My original vision had been to go to the market and buy food to cook back up at the apartment, well the timing was off, and sometimes you have to change the vision to meet the reality.  So we went to the Central market for lunch instead, not a bad thing.

Around the central food market there are several streets of vendors selling leather goods, scarves and all kinds of jewellery and other touristy items.

I really wish I had bought this umbrella, it was the only one I saw and what a perfect souvenir for someone who lives in a rain forest.

We poked around the stalls bought a few scarves, belts, bags and wallets as presents for family at home and then headed in to the food market.

There was of course every kind of pasta that you have ever seen, olives and vegetables.

Beautiful zucchini flowers

A visit to a winery - Castello Verrazzano

While we were in Florence we wanted see some of Tuscan countryside and also to visit a winery, so we were delighted when our waiter one lunch time gave us a brochure for a winery and informed us that in fact we could be picked up and taken there. the winery was Castello Verrazzano.

It turned out this was the same family that the bridge in New York is named after, in fact they contended that it should not have been called the Hudson River it should have been called The Verrazzano river as apparently he was there first.

Castello Verrazzano

We phoned the number provided in the brochure to request the executive wine tour, which included picking us up, tour of the winery lunch with tasting and bringing us back to Florence. Unfortunately we wanted to go on Monday and they did not do the executive tour that day, but the woman we were talking to said that she came right by our apartment every day on her way to work and she would pick us up and take us there, and then drop us off at the bus to get back.  We jumped at the chance and for 28.00 euros each we would get a "light lunch" and the tour and tasting.

Gillian (an expat who had married an Italian) picked us up as arranged at 9:30 and drove us through the beautiful countryside to the winery.  She was very informative and told us a little about the winery and a lot about living in Italy.

The winery itself is beautiful, built on a hill top with several levels of buildings including the family home. We were a little early for the tour, so we hung out taking hundreds of pictures of the beautiful scenery.

Part of the gardens

Thngs to in Florence #2 - Sit in outdoor cafe in a Piazza

Sitting in outdoor cafes in Piazza's is one of my favourite things to do in Italy, in fact any where.  If you sit in one of the main squares you will pay a premium for the drink, but I think it is worth it, especially if this is the only time you will be there. The people watching and soaking up the atmosphere is worth the little extra you may pay.  In Paris have a coffee on the Champs Elysee, it will probably be one of the most expensive coffees of your life, but you will always remember it.

In Florence we decided to have a bottle of Prosecco in Piazza della Signoria over looking the Pellazzo Vecchio.

It was a beautiful sunny warm lunch time and though none of us was very hungry we decided to look at the menu for something to eat to go with our Prosseco.  Then prices were indeed horribly expensive, but it was just so darn pleasant we decided to order any way.  While we were waiting for our food, we received two plates of appetizers and two bowls of nuts and snacks for free!

One of the platters of appetizers

Things to do in Florence #1 - Walk up to Piazza Michelangelo

One of the things that was on our agenda to do in Florence was get up to Piazza Michelangelo to see the view looking over the city and to visit a Church. Our starting point was The Pitti Palace which is situated just over the Ponte Vecchio on the south side of the river Arno.

Ponte Vecchio

There is a very complicated ticketing system at the Pitti Palace there are several things to see and you have to be careful to get the right ticket.  We got the one for the costume gallery and to both Boboli and the Bardini Gardens, so that we could walk through the gardens up to our destination.

Pitti Palace

The costume gallery was wonderful, clothes through the ages is one of my old loves, as a child I used to study books of clothes through the centuries and my favourite museum was the Victoria and Albert which has an amazing collection.  This was a very good collection, and they were displayed in style rather than age.  For instance there were dresses from the 20's displayed with a dress from the 60's that had a similar design.  We all enjoyed this (but no pictures allowed) and then we went out to the gardens.

They were formal Italian gardens not a lot of flowers, but full of statues and vistas.  We walked up the gardens ably guided by Connie and her guide book as to how to get to the Piazza Michelangelo.  It was quite warm and we took our time walking up.

Looking back at the Palace

At the top of the gardens you go left out down a winding street to the Bardini gardens.

Apartment in Firenza (Florence)

There were four of us going to Florence for 5 days and we decided to rent an apartment instead of staying in a hotel, like we did in San Juan.  We found the apartment on tripadvisor called Casa Iris It had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a fully equipped kitchen.

We were on the top floor of this building

It was centrally located with in walking distance of all the sites, but a little removed so that the local restaurants were mostly catering to locals.  Having a large living room to sit in the evening enjoying a glass of wine or emailing home, was much preferable to a hotel bed room.

The living room