Our last day in Florence

The central market
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Today is Friday, the 12^th, Diane’s last day in Florence, tomorrow we drive to Rome and drop her off at her hotel. She leaves on Sunday morning. We’ve had a great visit, and we’ll be sorry to see her go.

We got a very slow start this morning, which was perfect since we were all pretty tired last night. Claudia wanted to take the hop on/off bus around town, and I remembered a restaurant near the Piazzale Michelangelo that was really nice. We walked to the train station to catch the bus and walked through the Central Market. We’ve been by it several times, but never could figure out what was in the big building that looks like a train station. Turns out the large building is the Central Market. It’s filled with individual stores, butchers, fish mongers, vegetables, flowers, oil, wine, dried fruits, nuts, rice, spices. It was unbelievable, we walked around for a little while until we found a coffee shop on the second floor and decided on our morning cappuccinos. Delicious.

The city from Piazzale Michelangelo
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Found our way to the bus stop, and climbed to the top level. It’s not nearly as hot today, and there was a gorgeous breeze when the bus was moving. We got off at the Piazzale and right behind it was the restaurant that I remembered, La Loggia. We decided on a light lunch on the beautiful patio overlooking all of Florence, what a view!!! Since it was after twelve o’clock, Claudia and I had our traditional Cosmos, and some sandwiches. So relaxing, we all decided that if we lived in Florence, we’d want to be somewhere up on that side of the river, among the beautiful mansions and gorgeous tree lined streets.

Jim and Jean
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Jim and I got off the bus, but the girls switched to the other line to see Fiesole, a small town nearby, they’re not back yet.

We’re having dinner tonight at Ristorante Cafaggi again, it’s just around the corner from our apartment and our last meal there was wonderful, friendly and reasonable. So long to Florence.

After we drop Di at the hotel, we have to find our way to the Praiano area of Positano.

Our GPS is having trouble locating any of the landmarks, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Ciao, Firenze. E una bella citta.