The City

THINGS TO DO AND SEE

Sleeping is a thing to do.

Carol, after a hard day of waiting for me to climb 463 steps and leap on to a fat man, takes a break. Note the plush furnishings, overstuffed chairs and pictures on the walls. Cockroaches don't even book this hotel.

After this pix, Carol should divorce me.

Eating is a thing to do.

There are many great restaurants and the food, outside of the bread, is great. (Go to Naples for bread.) This restaurant had great atmosphere and food. It was just a little place. Hams were hanging from the ceiling and people were waiting outside to get in.

Walking off the food is a thing to do. This is one of the wide streets and, at the moment, almost empty by Florentinian standards.
	Painting the street is a thing to see. This artist was excellent. No Picasso, but very good. The frustration! Ten hours sitting on stone creating, creating, creating, hoping for donations. Wind blowing your stuff around. "Sorry about that. Did I step on Madonna's nose?". "Let's see? Pigeon poop and yellow make what? Brown? OK, brown lips it is." "Rain? NO! NOT NOW! Well, there goes a day's work down the drain."

Window shopping is a thing to do.

Paper, paper everwhere and no place to write

Mask painting shop. Maybe for Carnevale, but I thought that masks were worn only in the Venice Carnevale?

A papier-mâché shop.

Face off

A mideastern fabric shop.

The Mercato Centrale is something to see.

The local cheeses, hams and sausages are hard to walk away from...but can I take it on the plane?

This 17th centaury copy of a Roman marble statue is supposed to be lucky if you rub it's snout. It was lucky for me, Carol didn't buy that stupid hat!

Petting a pig is a thing to do.

All that ham make you hungry for pork? The "Straw Market" sells things made out of, yep, straw (and other stuff). It was either very expensive or we were very cheap the day we went. A vendor offered Carol a hat for 70,000 lira ($35 at today's rate). I said, "Tropo Soldi", too much money. He asked what I was willing to pay. I said I wasn't interested. Then he tried the hooker. "Nothing, nada, niente, zip, free. How about that?", he says with a sneer. The sneer gets you. He is mocking you by giving it to you free. I have played this game before. You say, "Ok". He says, "Well, I can't really let it go for that little, but how about xxx?" Now you're hooked, your negotiating.

Seeing an innovation is a thing to do.

I can't remember who sculpted this statue or what building it is in, but I do remember that we read about it and went looking for it. The building has many similar sculptures around it's periphery, but this one is special. It was an innovation in art, a first. The right foot extending beyond the frame of the sculpture adds a dimension to the sculpture not used before.

If anyone can help me identify this more completely, I will update this page.

San Croche is a thing to see.

It is externally simple in comparison to the Duomo, but the interior is much more interesting. If memory serves me correctly, Marconi (Radio) and Enrico Fermi (Atom bomb) were buried here along with a few lesser knowns (Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli).

Is this guy Gorgeous, or what?