Florence (Firenze as they call it)

It’s another dreary day today, but we went into Florence anyway. And what did we learn today….never, NEVER drive in Florence! Apparently Italians do not wish anyone to find their train stations, because there were absolutely no signs to the station…let me re-phrase, there were no signs period! Its really a guessing game as to which direction you should go. Once in a blue moon, you’ll see a sign, this way to Siena (this was us trying to get back out at the end of the day), and then look – the road splits and no sign of which way to go! We made many many circles, which in this city is no easy feat, drove into the downtown core which we are not allowed to drive in, but hell, my little book map showed the train station that way, so dammit, we are going that way. To sum it up, we were frightened! Made it in and out alive though!
We found the train station after much pain, booked our tickets to Milan, found an internet place and booked our hotel in Milan (no time to post blogs), grabbed a bite to eat, and hit the streets for some touring. Pretty much in the centre of the downtown core is a huge duomo (church) which we decided to pay the 6 euros each to climb up to the top of the dome (463 stairs….huff…puff…pant…weeze). What a beautiful 360 view of the city. It was worth it! Climbed back down (ahh, much easier), and then it was time for some shopping. Kevin was encouraging me to look around and shop a little (cause who wouldn’t want to shop in Florence), so we turned the window shopping into peaking into a leather store to look at some boots….which turned into also looking at a leather coat…which turned into them taking Kevin away from me to take him upstairs to look at suits (trouble)…which led to trenchcoats....which led to shirts (more trouble)…to oh, look at this cashmere jacket. Good thing Kevin checked his email earlier to learn he was getting a quarterly bonus…cause that’s where its going to (hello bonus, goodbye bonus)!! Hell, when will we get a chance to shop in Italy again? Ended up buying me the boots and the coat, and Kevin…well, let’s just say he didn’t get a suit. Somehow the rest of what he looked at made it’s way home with us though (we got some really great deals though, and some nice stuff). And we still have the Prada outlet mall to hit before we leave for Milan….oh no…Milan…more shopping (yep, I truly am in Heaven).
Out of the crazy city we went (again frightened for our lives and our sanity), 2 hrs later, we are back on the road home, detoured to San Gimignano for dinner (we liked our lunch there so much, decided to go back to the same restaurant for dinner….Kevin had wild boar again), and then home. Arrived back at our villa at 11:30pm – it was a long but fabulous day!