Florence (Firenze) Italy-Palm Sunday

This is a beautiful city on the Arno River. Our 1st evening we were taken to a great Italian restaurant that seems to cater to tours as they were all groups of 20-30, about 300 total in the restaurant. There was one bus load from California. First course, cotto and bruschetta. 2nd course spinach & risotto stuffed ravioli and square of lasagna. 3rd course was choice of fish, chkn or T-bone with potatoes. I had steak! 4th course was gelato. That seems to be the typical dessert. The wine flowed quite freely, too, as it has at all of our meals:)

Out tour guide suggested we not buy leather until we got here. There are many leather shops and we got a tour of Pecuzzi, who is apparently the largest leather tailor in Italy. We were told how to identify genuine leather, very helpful as many shops say theirs is genuine Italian leather when, in fact,the goods are made in China. When it arrives in Italy, they put on buttons or some other adornment and it becomes legal to say "made in Italy" or "genuine leather". Buyer Beware!!

After touring many famous landmarks, we were free to wander the streets of Florence for 4 hrs. As in any tourist destination, if you've seen one shop you've seen them all! But I wandered around on the 2000 yr old cobblestone streets until my back couldn't take another step.

I went to an outdoor cafe & had an
order of garlic bread & Coke. I ate & watched the people....people of all nationalities. Of course, it cost me 9€ ($12) for lunch but I will have the sights & smells as a memory.

Today is Palm Sunday so all the church bells in town are ringing. It is really magical! The church in this photo is Santa Croce.

To give you an idea how tiny cars are,
look @ this tiny car. It's about the size of the kids' Barbie car!

Tonight we are having dinner @ our hotel, then tomorrow we go to Monaco on the French Riviera. We are having dinner near the Monte Carlo casino! Ooo Lala!