9/22 Last dinner in Florence

Ristorante Giannino in San Lorenzo
Sausages with white beans and house rosso. It’s good. Great people watching…soaking in my last evening. It’s a pretty night. The pecorino with truffle honey looked too good to pass up so I told the waitress that my husband was back at the hotel room and I had to bring it back for him. Even if Harry were back in the room, he’d never in a million years eat honey with truffles. So she was very kind to package it to go for me to enjoy while I pack my bag.

This morning I woke up at 3am on the nose remembering that I didn’t call or Skype the family that evening. Since it was only 9:00am Atlanta time I texted Harry to apologize. He informed me that they had cancelled school the next day due to rain. Apparently it has been raining for 6 days up there and everything is flooded.

So I awoke again at 8:00am, quick got dressed in comfy clothes, threw on a hat and headed out for the Cascine Market. It was about a 20 minute walk along the Arno River, which was nice. Lots of people moving in. As in, movers and furniture, etc. It was neat to see the furniture of people who actually live right there in Florence. Lots of antiques.

I got to walk past the American Consulate and got yelled at for taking a picture. Ooops--dumb tourist.

So the Cascine Market was in fact full of locals and it was very colorful. However, it was very much like a flea market or dollar store (euro store?). And I don’t want to sound like a snob, but I don’t feel right about buying something at an Italian market from someone other than an Italian. Then I heard one old lady tell another old lady in Italian something about Indonesia--as in, “made in” and I realized that although I was in the right place to rub elbows with the locals, I wasn’t finding my boots here. I did buy a backpack for 5 euro to carry back my new purchases since my suitcase was ridiculously full, then I boogied back to the Central Market to try my luck there.

Once I got back to the center of Florence I found gifts for the kids and started my hunt. Discovered my body is just not built for short leather jackets. Boots, you ask? Tried on several but nothing was quite right. I did, however, find a great handbag. It was the first to catch my eye and I was able to find it after a couple more hours of shopping. Yae!