March 25, 2011 Friday

I woke up with my eyes practically sealed shut with crusty gunk and ears still plugged. The cold is getting worse instead of better. What's up with that?

Tenar running free in Boboli Gardens

Once out of the apartment, I tried my best to find something to buy that is significant of Florence: leather, paper, jewelry, and came up with nothing except the waste of a couple of hours. Okay, not really a waste, as we walked more blocks of the city, getting to know it. And through our wanderings, I was struck again by how many Americans are here. The local merchants aren't that friendly. Either that is their nature, or they are sick and tired of the tourists. I'm sure they love the crazy spending though. We made it to the Pitti Palace and decided not to go in. We are now saturated a bit with museums. I stead we walked to a point where we could enter the Boboli Gardens at the furthest end. These are the gardens that surround the Pitti Palace on the hillside. After exploring these, we went on to the Bardini Gardens, passing by Forte di Belvedere on the way. The fort was closed for renovation after a couple of people "fell down" and died. I have to think that means they fell off the wall, but I'm not sure. Of course, knowing that, we definitely wanted to go into the fort, but alas, couldn't. So we went on to the Bardini Gardens. These are smaller and more homey than the Bobini Gardens. Our visit was short, since they closed at 5:00 pm, and we exited at the far end, coming out of a multiple-storied building. We were surprised that the exit is on the same street as our apartment, and in a building we had passed a few times. I had seen the name, Giardino Bardini, saw children playing in one room, and thought it was a daycare!

View from Bardini Gardens...  Our apartment is out there somewhere

Before going home, we passed our own door and went to the market to get milk for our cereal the next morning. We left the market on the north side this time, and saw the restaurant Carlo had recommended, Terrazio. We had tried to go our first night here, but that was Monday, and the restaurant is closed on Mondays. We went home and waited until it opened at 7:00 pm, then walked over. It was indeed good! They had the sauteed spinach we'd had at the Osteria the night before for €3.50 instead of €5, and the same for desserts. I had a fantastic salad of hickory, arugula, parmesan and raisins, and we shared a spicy sausage pizza. I don't know where the sausage was, and the spicy was dollops of very hot chiles. We removed most of the chile paste and enjoyed it nonetheless.