un altro da Firenze.

...oh my, it just keeps getting better! here's a quick look at the rest of Tuesday and Wednesday. Just after I published the last post, we headed to dinner at La Bussola. Quick mirror-check before we walk out the door.

Sorry, no photos of our meal, but it was delicious. I've been taking photos of almost all the food, but I'm not happy with how most of them turn out (blaming the iPhone and the bad lighting!) We heard about this place because there was a bottle of their wine in the welcome basket from our apartment's owner. It was a great recommendation - we enjoyed the food so much we plan to return for lunch today. (and maybe the lighting will be better!) In any event, we had pizza and burrata and we were too full for dessert.

The walk home along the river was a light show.

...and then it was Wednesday.  We spent the whole day (minus lunch and a little bit of shopping) at the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens. The palace was home to the Medicis (and other royalty) and packed full of art and other lovely pieces. No photos allowed, but I snuck this one to give you an idea of the opulence.

...and this wasn't even a room with "art".  Our necks were sore from looking up; all the ceilings were decorated, many with paintings depicting mythological stories. The paintings were mostly Renaissance; this is certainly the largest collection I've seen from that period. I really enjoyed it.

On our way back from lunch, we stopped to check out the handful of artists outside the palace. This one charmed me and Francie; we both bought pieces depicting the Duomo (I'll share them later...they're a surprise right now, but you can get a feel from the couple shown next to him).

We spent the rest of the afternoon climbing and touring the Boboli Gardens. The views were amazing. This one is before we climbed very high.

...a little later...

...and close to the top.

Sara was really patient with the rest of us taking photos.

She had the whole city of Florence laid out in front of her!

It was after six by the time we got back to the apartment. We had late dinner reservations and a few hours to simply relax.  Sadly, Sara couldn't figure out how to stream a movie on my iPad "legally", so we read and napped. We arrived at the restaurant just after nine and it was still going strong. We started with a meat and cheese plate (and Katie, we all enjoyed a bite for you!), continued with another burrata (this one was better than the one before), pastas and a salad. And this time we had a little room for dessert..just one!

Everything about this meal was worth repeating. We told our server we'd be back Saturday night.

...and now it's Thursday. We are headed back across the river and plan to do a little shopping, a little eating (we missed gelato yesterday, so that's a must), and a lot of museum - we have tickets for the Uffizi this afternoon.

Ciao!