We were supposed to be Venice-bound today, but when we got to the train station and discovered the next train didn't leave until 3pm for the 2-hour ride and the last train back was 7pm, we did the math and quickly changed our plans. We bought tickets for tomorrow and will be off and running.
The reason we got to the station late was a toilet that would not flush properly and kept running and running. We hated to do it, but we had to call our host and get him out in the middle of the night -- about 12:30 am -- to fix it. Fortunately, easy fix, some advice on prevent recurrences and everyone went to sleep. Us, not before 2am. Ug. An easy change of plans and we were back on track.
First stop: More shopping!!! We returned to our fabulous shoe shop, this time to search for casual shoes for Gene. Half hour later, and THREE pairs of shoes more, we felt complete. Throw in a leather purse, made right here in Florence and I believe our Italy shopping days are over for the remainder of the journey, other than some refrigerator magnets and various little doo dads.
The afternoon was taken up at the Galileo Museum, which Gene noticed on the street map of Florence we're using and sent him into spasms of excitement. It features instruments designed, built and used by Galileo himself and he felt that the combination of seeing where Isaac Newton & Stephen Hawking studied in Cambridge and instruments used by Galileo in Florence within a year would make his life complete.
Rule #1 for husbands: give your wife 3 new pairs of shoes and 1 Italian leather purse and she'll follow you anywhere. So we both went off to the Galileo Museum happy campers (and the museum was very very cool).
After the Museum, we walked over to Ponte Vecchio to take more photos of it in daylight and came home to #1 of our freshly-made pasta dinner. We walked past that shop and bought more pasta for tomorrow. Oh lordy, the ravioli was to. die. for. good.
And then home for the evening, to start figuring out how to fit stuff in suitcases and to prepare for an early awakening for Venice.
So I think for the rest of today's report, I'll just let my photos speak for themselves:
Look! non-dorky, non-white shoes for my husband. And he is now walking around not only stylish, but comfortable. yay!!!
Da man his own self, with his own Museum of cool stuff. You'd think he'd look happier.
Maybe this is the reason: they got his middle finger and his thumb on display. I sure understand why it's his middle finger. There's also a tooth in there according to the sign below the display.
But they also have his microscope. The actual microscope used by Galileo. That's pretty cool, imho.
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| And then in the middle of everything, they throw in the great-great-great-great-great grandfather of a Dalek. Go figure.
I have no idea what this room was about, but it looked very Steampunkish to me.
This is a map of the world circa 1497 -- before America was even discovered! It was fascinating to see what the rest of the world was investigating / discovering while we here on the other side of the Pond were still clearing brush so we could build a log cabin with an outhouse!
And speaking of America, here's Amerigo Vespucci, in case you ever wondered what he looked like. I don't know his connection to Galileo, though.
There were several of these cool paintings on display. If you look from one angle, you see one portrait and a totally different one if you look from another angle. That's a lot of work!
The view of Florence from Ponte Vecchio.
And the view of Ponte Vecchio. It's lined -- on both sides of the street -- with very pricey jewelry stores. Nothing but jewelry stores. It was like sending a child into a candy store, I swear.
And where there's a will, there's a way. These locks come out of nowhere (well a grate) and hang down. How they started -- the openings on the grate are very small -- or are added to is kind of a mystery. But there they are!
And finally back in our own apartment, where we opened up the window because it was just so lovely outside and were treated to this view. The bells of the church rang regularly for a while.
Meanwhile, we had a fabulous in-apartment meal of freshly made ravioli. Spinach & cheese ravioli with homemade (well made at the store fresh each day) meat sauce. To die for meat sauce. And so our Italian adventure continues. Tomorrow we check out Venice for a few hours.
Steps recorded today: 11,496 + Steps in the museum when I left my Fitbit in a locker: 2, 500 (estimate) Total to date: 63,928 |
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