Florence, Day 3, Part 1 We were up and out by 8:45 and stopped at the cafe a couple of doors down for morning cappucinos and pastries - a delicous chocolate and hazelnut cream filled croissant for me, some kind of donut thing for M. As we walked around central Florence, we saw that we were going to be blessed with sun (at least for awhile) and so we walked to the second stop on "line B"" for the sightseeing bus for Fiesole. By doing so, we beat out all of the other tourists who boarded at later stops and we able to snag the front seats with an unobstructed view of everything.

With the sun in our faces (so welcome after yesterday) we wound through the city, along the Arno river, and up, up, up to the beautiful little hill town of Fiesole. Along the way, we enjoyed absolutely breathtaking views of Florence and the Arno Valley. We were giddy with joy that we didn't "settle" for doing the Fiesole
trip in the rain yesterday and we both agreed that this was definitely one of the best moments of our trip thus far, the other being our last full day in Venice. The circuit took two hours and we wound up in central Florence again around noon.

After a brief stop at the apartment (so handy to be staying where we are) we walked over to the Mercato Centrale which is a HUGE market where you can buy anything imaginable. After drooling over row upon row of goodies:



(and gasping at some unimaginable horrors - tripe, brains, and other UFO's):



we headed across the street to Trattoria Za Za for lunch. M had a pizza and I had a delicious Greek Salad and a side of rosemary potatoes. Of course, we washed it down with a 1/2 liter of house white. The total bill came to around 26E, but the food was good and the atmosphere, terrific.

(to be continued ...)  ¶ 8:34 AM