Florence Day 2!

Today was a very relaxed day. No alarm clock, no train station at 7, no one we had to meet by a specific time. We awoke when our bodies told us we had enough sleep. Today we went to the mercato centrale to get the rest of our weekly provisions...oranges, apples, peaches, melons, and tomatoes...you get them fresh and with a smile. The vendor, Dina, was the cutest lady ever, I think we'll go back to see her again next week. After buying our fruit, we had lunch at a panini shop, where the paninis are made to order with fresh ingredients. I have to say that my eggplant, mozzarella, and tomato panini was delicious! We weren't even half way done with our paninis when we noticed a gelateria right next to the panini shop; needless to say, we made our way there once we finished eating. We walked in after we had decided to share one small one, just to get the temptation out of the way. Yeah right! The minute we saw all of the flavors, we knew that we would each walk out with our own little cup. I had the cherry and a serving of rosewater and pistachio. Pox had melon and coconut. I wouldn't even attempt to describe the creamy, fruity, luscious goodness that exploded in our mouths after each bite. It was too much of a piece of heaven to even talk about it, you'd just have to try it yourselves.

After grocery shopping some more, we walked back to our apartment and did laundry. We hung our clothes on the clothes line right outside our window. It's only day 2 and we are already doing things the Italian way!

Our afternoon included a stroll to Santa Maria Novella, which had a beautiful courtyard in front of it. It is currently being renovated and should be back to it's full glory soon. After admiring the marble facade, or fake exterior of the church, we headed toward the Arno River. The Arno is just a short walk from our apartment--just 3 blocks! We walked to Ponte (Bridge) Santa Trinita where we had a full view of Ponte Vecchio, or Old Brigde, which has a plethora of gold shops on it. From Santa Trinita, we took in the sunset and the view of the beautiful golden city. As we walked back to our apartment, we stopped across the street at Osteria Pizzeria Centopoveri (literally meaning one hundred poor people). From the looks of it, the poor people that dine there have really good taste! We ordered a Margherita pizza a'sporto (take away/out) that we shared as we watched Italian television. It's now 12:24 a.m. and we have plans to wake early tomorrow, so I'll end this post with this: "Buona notte, ci parliamo domani (Good night, we will talk to you tomorrow)."