Florence, April 4

We started a little earlier this morning. We showered, had breakfast, and left here around 9:15 with umbrellas, as it looks like we will get rain a little later. We thought that we would check out the church at the Duomo as it opened at 10. What were we thinking? The line is never short. We decided that waiting for hours was not in the cards again today. We walked over to the train station to see where we would need to be tomorrow morning as we have tickets for a 9:55 departure to Cinque Terre.

People standing around waiting to get into the Cathedral

       

3 musician entertaining us

Line up in front of the Cathedral

We walked around and ended up at the San Lorenzo market. It’s not too busy yet. 

Outdoor part of the market

Belts anyone? There has to be a couple of dozen of these guys selling the same thing.

A serving for two. Not my favourite type of meal. Lots of meats and cheeses. Very popular here.

Guy making pasta

Long pasta strung up.

All kinds of food could be purchased

We found some food for lunch 

I had a salad in bread. I needed to stock up on a few veggies. Lots of carbs here.

Ron had a fusili pasta and for dessert, a cannoli.

After lunch we decided to return to the south side of the Arno river and walk up to Belvedere Fort. It was not an easy walk and then it started raining. 

Ron  taking a breather while going up 

Road looking down. We had to share the narrow street with cars as well.

We have the umbrellas from our rental so we use them when it starts to pour. It is windy also, so not great. At this point we don’t feel like paying the 10 Euro entry fee in the rain. We return to the bottom and walk to a grocery store. It has stopped raining at this point. We buy a bottle of wine and decide to return to our flat to rest and have a drink. 

Well the rain has continued and so we decided to stay in as there are no restaurants or take outs near here. We drink some wine, eat the cheese we bought yesterday, finish the strawberries, and have a few crackers. We’ll pick up something to have for breakfast on our way to the train station tomorrow.