Florence, Day 4 - An entire museum dedicated to shoes? Yes, please.

Abbey, overlooking the Pitti Palace.
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Since we spent the majority of the previous day shopping, we got up really early to see the rest of Florence that we had missed!

We walked to the Palazzo Pitti, stopping of course for cappuchino and brioche on the way!

We got to the Pitti Palace just after it opened, which was nice - we had the place all to ourselves!

Since we had already toured the Palaces in Austria, we decided to stick to the gardens at this one - they were beautiful!

Rub a dub-dub -- Abbey and Jen in a big bathtub.
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Laid out by the Medici family, the Boboli Gardens were really created to fill in the space where the stone had been quarried for the palace itself.

They have beautiful gardens, with over 170 statutes, and we wandered around the entire thing.

There was a giant bathtub statue - we're not sure why it was there, but of course we had to jump in and take a picture!

Since the place was empty, Abbey decided to stop a gardener who was riding a moped and spoke NO english - he laughed like crazy when she handed him the camera and then ran to jump in the tub.

Abbey is scared of midgets... and this scary little naked one riding a turtle was no exception! Honestly - who thinks this is art??
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We really are tourists.

After the tub, we headed down to the big fountain - we couldn't imagine that this was once someone's backyard!

Jen noted that big giant yards/gardens like this are why there were so many trysts - Abbey pointed out how uncomfortable it would be to tryst in these gardens with the manicured grass and bugs.

We walked to the top of the amphitheater (where the first ever opera concert was held) and got a spectacular panoramic view of the entire city.

Jen poses with a big statute in the beautiful Boboli gardens
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We also saw the famous neptune fountain, which was actually kinda small (insert witty joke about the David here).

The famous statue of Cosimo Medici's count dwarf ("little person" to be politically correct, or so Abbey is instructed when she tells people about her midget-phobia) riding a turtle is near the exit.

Of course, Abbey was afraid of it.

Of course, we had to take pictures.

The view of the Neptune fountain, the Boboli gardens, the Pitti Palace, and all of Florence!
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Of course, it was funny as hell.

We also saw the man-made grotto, adorned with famous sculptures including casts of Michelangelo's "slaves".

We still had a few hours before our train, so we decided to try and find the Ferragamo shoe museum, which was briefly mentioned in Abbey's guidebook.

We walked to and found the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo - an entire museum dedicated to the "shoemaker to the stars."

At the Ferragamo shoe museum... the happiest place on earth!
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The museum was free (which Jen loved) and was full of old shoes (which Abbey loved!)

We watched a 20-minute documentary about Ferragamo's life:

Did you know that...

- Ferragamo invented the wedge?

These shoes are made of solid, 18-karat gold... and Abbey is officially in love.
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- Ferragamo made shoes out of gilded candy wrappers during WWII?

- Ferragame won the Neiman Marcus Oscar for Fashion Innovation?

- Ferragamo refused to produce shoes in America because the quality wasn't as good as Italy?

- Ferragama made a pair of shoes entirely out of 18-karat gold?

Well, we didn't know any of that, and it was fascinating!

We also got to see all of the trademarked designs that looked like normal shoes to us, but at the time were totally new and unique.

Abbey wanted a souviner - but all they had were $400 shoes and no postcards, so we walked away empty handed.

We grabbed some lunch at a nearby cafe, which was lovely - we had a view of the best shopping street in Florence!

Home to Gucci, Hermes, Vuitton, Ferragamo, Versace, and all the greats - Abbey was in heaven, and remembered why she was in law school.

Unfortunately, it was time to catch our train - we headed to the station and back to Venice.