Florence, Day 3 - Shop 'till we drop!! (AKA: Sunglasses? What Sunglasses? I don't have any sunglasses!)

Shopping in the outside market - we loooove to spend money.
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Well, we slept until 10:30 - which is really late for us!  But, it felt great.

We left our hotel and headed to sightsee -- but got distracted by the shopping!

First, we went to the leather market and the market with the gold pig from the day before.

After looking around for a while and deciding we weren't going to buy anything, we both caved (Jen first, then Abbey got jealous and followed suit) and bought the most beautiful black portfolios for interviews in the fall - you know what they say, you've gotta spend money to make money!

Enjoying our after-lunch drinks with our new friend Christy.
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Then, Abbey caved again and got a caramel-colored leather purse - there was no good reason, except it was beautiful and she needed a brown bag.

We had every intention of seeing more sights -- but then we passed Zara, a great store (similar to H & M) that is from Spain.

We had to go in - and did very well for ourselves!

Abbey got an adorable dress (which she is wearing in tomorrow's pictures) to add more color to her Italian wardrobe, as well as some cute shoes - even though, lord knows, Abbey needs more shoes like she needs a hole in the head.

Sunglasses? What are you talking about sunglasses? This is just a big box I like to carry around...
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Jen got the most beautiful black and white flowy dress - Abbey wants to find an excuse for her to wear it in Venice!

From there, we went to MaxMara, because we had seen an adorable dress in the window.  Abbey ended up getting the dress, as well as a beautiful cranberry wool stole with giant buttons (it seemed silly to buy a wool coat in June, but it was so beautiful that Jen wouldn't let her walk out of the store without it!)

We were hungry - it was almost 2pm!  We stopped at a restaurant called Osteria Dell Agnolo for lunch; there was a girl playing a ukulele with the most beautiful voice, so we decided to sit outside and enjoy!

...oooh, you mean these sunglasses. Sure, I've got sunglasses. You want to buy some sunglasses?
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She turned out to be an American, and her name is Victoria Vox - go to her website and have a listen, we both loved it!  She was unfortunately sold out of CD's, so Abbey is forced to buy her music on iTunes.

While enjoying the music, we started chatting with the girl sitting next to us; she was 30 and was traveling by herself - she ended up being really nice!

her name was Christy and she was from L.A.

She has worked for the past 8 years in TV as a producer for MTV reality shows like the Surreal Life and Strange Love - she got sick of it all though and decided to travel Europe for a while to decide what to do with her life.

In Palazzo del' Michelangelo, where the David looks out over the entire city.
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She had incredible stories about people she has met while traveling, and about working in "the biz" - about Flavor Flav, Verne, and all the other wierdos in the Strange Love houses.

The waitor insisted that we stay for free shots of grappa and lemoncello - how could we say no!

We were off to drop of our bags at the hotel, and we always end up in bed by eleven, so we said bye to Christy - she was off in search of fun (and we're more like old ladies).  Haha.

We of course had to get some T-shirts from the street vendors - they had the most adorable Vespa shirts!

The beautiful church of San Miniato al Monte
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We love the guys that sell fake purses and sunglasses on the street - Jen loves them because they are African; Abbey loves them because, since they don't have licenses, they have to pack up all of their stuff when a police car drives by (which is every 30 minutes, at least).

The purse guys have their bags in a big sheet, and just scoop them up; the sunglasses are all attached to a giant cardboard thing that folds.

They fold up their stuff in about 4 seconds time, then stand there and look at the police like, "Sunglasses?  I don't have any sunglasses.  Oh, this?   This is my box.  I just like to carry this around.  I don't know what you're talking about, sunglasses."

The view of the sun starting to set over the bridges of Florence
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It was hilarious, and every time we saw them (and even when we didn't) we would crack ourselves up by saying, "Purses?  What are you talkin' bout, purses?  This?  This is just my big sheet full of crap.  I don't have any purses."

We finally got back to the hotel - at around 5:00!

We refused to have spent the entire day shopping, and the sun was still up for a while, so we headed to Piazzale Michelangelo - a beautiful plaza up in the hills that is dotted with copies of Michelangelo's statues, and overlooks the entire city of Florence.

The sun as it sets over the Ponte Vecchio.
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We got there right as the sun was starting to set, and it was beautiful!  The view was so pretty - if the duomo, the bell tower, and the ponte vecchio.

We walked to the beautiful church of San Miniato al Monte; as the sun was setting it shone directly on the gold mosaic on the front, and it was spectacular!

We walked down, enjoying the panoramic view as we did, to cross the river.

The view of the Ponte Vecchio as the sun set behind it was incredible!

Could this be any prettier?
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We then headed to our favorite Gelateria - Vivaldi!

We decided to each have the 5 Euro cup -- for dinner!!  It was the best meal of the trip.

It was only 9:00 - way too early to go to bed - so we decided to walk the streets a little.

We saw more of the purse and sunglasses guys, which of course cracked us up.

Gelato for dinner... YES PLEASE!
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Note: the entire week Abbey had been wanting to rent a Smart Car, one of those little tiny two-seaters that are literally the size of a shoebox.  Unfortunately, she couldn't find anyone to rent one to her - they only seemed to rent them out of Pisa or Rome.

We found a street vendor selling little smart cars (for kids, of course) for only 10 euro... Abbey had to have one.

She is now the proud owner of the most annoying toy in the world - it honks, the lights flash, the doors open and close, it drives around, AND it plays this obnoxious techno song... and she loves it.

Jen with a bottle of booze... again. Hehe.
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Jen is about to throw the thing out the window.

But, Abbey can finally walk by a smart car without saying, "I want one, Jen! Get me one, Jen! Pleeeeease??!"

It was still to early to go to bed, so Jen suggested that we get a bottle of Prosecco and sit on the Ponte Vecchio - Abbey thought that was an excellent idea!

Note: Jen hates that she is portrayed in this travel blog as a big drinker... but Abbey thinks that she needs to stop suggesting drinks, and taking shots like a pro!  Of course, we kid... everyone knows that Abbey drinks way more than Jenny ever could.

On our walk home, Abbey mounted the golden boar to ensure another visit to Florence. This has nothing to do with the fact that she and Jen just killed a huge bottle of wine.
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So, we got our bottle of prosecco, and two plastic cups (nothin' but class for us!) we headed to the Ponte Vecchio.

There were two Italian guys with guitars (they looked like the lost members of Guns and Roses with long grunge hair and ripped jeans) playing some Italian music but mostly American cover music - our favorite was when the covered Dave Matthews' "Satellite" in the thickest, most annunciated Italian accents.

As we sipped our wine and enjoyed the music, we again were hit on by literally every foreign man on the bridge.

Drinking on the bridge with our plastic cups - we are some classy American broads.
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First came a skeezy Italian who spoke NO english but was trying so hard - we were having fun by asking people around us, "do you speak italian?  how do you say get lost? How do you say bugger off?"  Finally, he got the hint.

Next were the Spanish guys - we pretended to know no english with the exception of "adios" - they got the hint too.

Then came more Italians, who at least spoke some english - and quickly told us that they were Sicilian, not Italian -- and that it was an important difference.  They rattled off all the famous Sicilians (which, Abbey pointed out, were all scary or gangsters -- they didn't like that comment so much).

We turned down their offer to join them for "deeeeener and dreeeeenks" - even though they told us it was the mistake of our lifetimes... we got over it real fast.

We finished our bottle and headed back to our hotel - figuring that eleven thirty was a respectable hour to go to bed... and laughing the entire way home at the sunglass and purse guys.