a beautiful Sunday in Florence

As we had hoped, the day dawned bright and clear, perfect weather for strolling and sight seeing.  Our ultimate destination was Santa Maria Novella train station to but tickets for our trip to Venice tomorrow.  But to get there we took several detours and side streets.  Even though it is Sunday and a busy tourist day, our neighborhood, off that track, was quiet and peaceful.  First we walked up to the Duoma to give it another good look.

Even though I've seen it several times it never fails to astonish.  It is so enormous and yet so delicate.  And Brunolleschi's dome is magical and mysterious every time.

Then it was over to the big indoor market (closed) but browsed all the stalls looking at scarves, leather good ~ belts, purses, wallets, jackets ~ and a variety of other goods.  Unknown to me in the past, the indoor market has a big restaurant upstairs and it was jammed with mid-day diners.  There is also a cooking school up there and we could look through big glass walls and watch them in their gourmet efforts.  Great looking cooking stations with bright chrome fixings and gorgeous pots and pans.

Next destination was the train station for our Venice tickets.

The closer we got the more recognizable was the neighborhood.  We completed our task and headed home.  We passed by the Santa Maria Novella cathedral, another beautiful edifice in a pretty piazza.

Then down the street with a quick stop in front of the Pensione Feretti, the place where Mr. C and I spent a few nights on our first trip to Italy.  It was recommended by my sand box pal, Marie.   A very good place to use as base camp for your stay in Florence.

We were timing ourselves from the train station to the house to figure out how early we might have to leave the house to get to the train station in time to catch a 9 o'clock departure.  Then we decided to heck with that, we'll take the bus so we slowed down, found a little trattoria and settled in for a nice late lunch.  Alex was hungry for something in porcini mushrooms and found the perfect dish.  I ordered mussels and was NOT disappointed by what came out of the kitchen.

These were so, so delicious in a fragrant citrus sauce.  They were plump and tender and very tasty.

This is what was left of our delicious lunch.  Clean plates all around.

We stopped at the super so I could get some batteries, then headed home.  On our way I saw this absolutely adorable little Fiat.  About the size of Dorothy but Italian, not German!

This is one of the old Fiat 500's that are more and more rare on the road.  I would LOVE to have one at home!  The laundry is done 2 hours later ~ and everything has NOT turned purple.  It's time to close up and sleep since we have to be up and out on the curb around 8 AM.  Venice tomorrow.  Stay tuned.