Florence, day 3

I really wanted to ride in the morning, but my hopes were dashed by heavy rain, as forecasted.  As the day unfolded, we would see bright summer sunshine, thunderstorms and clouds.  Crazy weather, in short.

We started by heading back to the Boboli gardens *again* in the rain.  We stopped along the way at a map store and bought a beautiful engraving of a lamprey and an unusual but stunning map of Bilbao.  We even did the bargaining in French!   I really love the pedestrian areas that are slightly away from the major sites.  There are so many art supply stores in Florence -- you really get a sense that it is still very much dominated by fine art.  In other words, fine art has not been relegated to the History of the city.

After a lot of kid carrying, who were by now even more tired than before, we arrived at the Pitti palace/Boboli gardens to find… another line!  Yay.  By the time we got our tickets, the rain had stopped.  It was a very, very dirty rain apparently and I noticed brown spots all over the hoods of the kids' jackets where it had dried out.

The Boboli gardens were impressive.

Then it was back to Vini e Vecchi Sapori, where more incredible food was consumed.  One big difference was that he offered us the zucchini saffron pasta which was not on the menu!  We also had an arugula salad with parmesan and raw artichoke.  Having never had raw artichoke before, I did not know what to expect, but it has a delightful snap and flavor.  I'll definitely be trying to re-create that one

There was also more caprese salad

More risotto, this time with truffle oil

The Most Perfect Pasta Ever, i.e. saffron and zucchini flower pasta

potato and butter ravioli with sage

Tiramisu before

and after

and a little wine of course.  By this time it was a beautiful sunny day outside and I was lightheaded from all the food (and possibly the wine), but it felt like I was in a movie.  The young manager (I think his name is Thomasso) was singing along to Imagine as he ran back and forth between the tables, the sunlight was streaming in, the kids were … not as loud as usual.  It felt pretty good.

Next, the long walk back to the hotel with kids on shoulders, then packing of the car, then seven and a half hours of driving to get home.  Some of the Rube Golberg autoroute had caught fire, so we had to reroute.  We got in around 10 PM after leaving before three.  When Zoe saw our exit she started chanting "We love Ben-to, and not the car!  We love Ben-to and not the car!".   Indeed.