I Got Nothing...

So today it was decided that we would see all the Davids today, well, at least the two that are somewhat easy to get to. We started out by going to the one out in the public, the David in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. Bob gave us a slight art history lesson here, I was able to help him a little (very little) by answering a few of his questions about why David was used. I wrote a paper about the different versions of the sculpture, so I was able to recall some of the information. We didn't spend too much time here, we had a few more small history lessons to get through.

We went to a area that had a foundling hospital, or hospital for the innocent, we didn't go in though. There was a church right next to it so we went in there. It was under some massive interior restorations, so what few pictures I got are probably not very good. A lot of frescos on the walls, and a small Christmas market right by the door that leads into the church... go figure.

After this we headed over to the Galleria dell Accademia for the group to see the REAL David. Since Francesca and I had already seen it we were debating if we wanted to see it again. Francesca solved that dilemma for us, she remembered a perfume shop that she wanted to go back to. I had already taken over 100 pictures at the Galleria, so I went with her to find the shop.

We found the shop, but also found it to be very closed and closed again tomorrow. Disappointed, we left the shop to start wandering around. We found a few places to shop at (shocker shocker) and felt we had 'wasted' enough time to find the group again; we gave them about an hour and a half before they would leave the Galleria to head to the massive food market that was to be the next stop. On the way we found an artist market in a square that we swear was not there before. It might have been, but we have seen so many that we couldn't be sure. I saw some amazing things there, stuff I would love to buy but knew it wouldn't make it home in one piece. We watched a man weave some scarves, we bought some things, and looked all over to make sure we didn't miss anything, we didn't, so we moved on to find the large market.

A trusty map and no fear of pulling it out helped us get to the market in no time. We kind of wandered a little around the outdoor markets... I saw some cool bow ties that I thought about getting for my uncle who wears them, but I couldn't remember what kinds he said he really wanted. By now we were getting pretty hungry, I owed Francesca a meal since she bought me lunch and dinner last week, so we searched for a place that took cards (so funny that that is the only stipulation). The first place we went to did and the menu looked good. Mamma Napoli is a place I would recommend highly. I had a ravioli dish that was amazon and Francesca has a seafood risotto dish. Such good food, good service, and when I needed to sign the receipt they asked for my autograph. I had never heard that before so I was loving it.... helped that it came from a good looking waiter.

Since we didn't see anyone from our group pass while we ate, we decided to go inside the market to see if we would run into them. Over half the shops were closed (we kept forgetting it was Sunday) and there wasn't a lot of people milling about. We tried upstairs, but that place was packed and we couldn't see them going up there. So back out to the other part of the market. We did find a place or two to make some purchases. My favorite place to go to, we didn't buy anything, but it was an experience.

We had just passed a man who was trying to seek us some 'bling bling', we said no and ran into a man outside a leather and fur shop that asked why we didn't want any 'bling', we said because we didn't want any fake stuff, "oh here we have no fake bling bling". We went in and I just browsed while Francesca did some serious looking. At one point the sales man was looking at her rings and realized she was married, Francesca said he should be looking my way. As I said 'no thank you' he was saying he liked the dark skin, the brown sugar. I about died laughing. We had to practically beat the man off his sales high in order to get out of there. When we finally got out I just looked at Francesca and called her a big fat liar, she kept telling him that we had to go eat lunch and find out group. I like watching that woman work, she is a trip.

So we decided to just not bother trying to catch up with the group and wander around a bit. Bob showed us a particular ceramics shop a few days ago and I remembered that they had some nativitys in their windows, so I asked if we could go find that shop. We remembered where it was, that is was close to the theater and a church.... our problem (that I figured out later) was that we went to the wrong church at first, all the churches were starting to run together in our memory. I brought new meaning to going around your butt to get to your elbow. We walked all over the city just to find this one store! We finally found the theater and then knew roughly where we had to go. We found the chocolate shop that was close by it and knew we were in the right direction. We found the shop and that is when I looked up to our left and saw the Duomo.... that has been my main landmark to find things, if I had paid attention to that the first time we would not have walked a good 3 extra miles.

We hit one more shop before we headed back to the hotel. That was a task and a half. I swear the entire city was out and about on that main street. I have not seen such a crowd before. It got to the point of just having one in front and the other following. We both hated being behind slow walkers when we were trying to get some place, so at one point Francesca lead and I followed just to get around all the shoppers. Once we passed the Ponte Vecchio I thought the crowd would thin down, nope! We had a maze of people to get through almost the entire way back to the hotel.

A short rest in the hotel and then it was back out to meet the group for dinner. Thanks to JMU footing the bill for a lot of the meals (originally not part of the plan) I have saved a lot. We went to La Mangiatoia tonight, just up from the hotel, and I was very unimaginative and had pizza. I can now say that I have had 4 different pizzas and only one was subpar, the rest were each very different flavors for being the same kind of pizza. I was hoping that the waitress came back before the bill was handed over because I was curious about their version of apple pie and ice cream. Another time maybe. Now it's time for bed.

More writing than pictures.... but that is ok