Getting away from the massive crowds was proving to be challenge especially while staying so close to the center of town but we found a place that for whatever reason was pretty much free of the crowds, the Central Market or Mercato Centrale is right up the street and full of great produce, butchers, fish mongers, bakeries, deli and lots of options for coffee or a bite to eat. Cappuccino for the three of us is only 3 Euros and strong enough to make your hands shake, awesome.
Since were in the market and dinner the night before had honestly been a disappointment of an under seasoned and over cooked, over sauced mess we thought we may as well buy some stuff and cook it ourselves since this was our last night in Florence.
After a few laps, some biscotti and another espresso we decided on some antipasti, pasta and then some sausages to wrap up dinner. The hardest part was really just limiting purchases; everything looked good and all of the vendors we talked to handed out samples of everything so it was a hard choice but in the end we got some cheese, antipasti, excellent salami and ham and locally made sausages from one of the butcher shops.
Before heading back home to drop off our purchases we stopped in for a quick bite of pasta and some rolls with salame and mortadella.
Next up dad wanted to go to the Galileo museum which was really interesting with all sorts of old instruments for charting the motion of stars and planets, ancient globes, a map from the 1200’s showing the world as flat and oddly enough Galileo’s thumb, index and middle fingers (creepy) and a tooth. Not sure why these were kept but I’m sure there’s a reason there someplace.
With the shopping out of the way we walked back down to the other side of the river and found a quick sandwich and wandered around the less traveled neighborhoods then back across the river through the fancier part of downtown. Lots of high end shops with very few customers but in an area surrounded by $500 a night hotels I’m sure they’re not really hurting.
Mark and I dropped dad off at the apartment and then headed back to the market for Olive oil, more espresso and then returned home and everyone just chilled out until it was time to work on dinner.
Brian & Kendra 