Florence, day 2.....Pitti Bimbo & Evening Tour

So, the main reason I went to Florence was for the Pitti Bimbo kids fair. It was held here at the 'berg of Florence. For better or worse, I didn't add any interior pictures here. Corporate confidentiality or simply because I already put them in a work pp and couldn't look at them again.....

After the show, I wondered around a bit more before joining my first tour, an evening tour in which in the end we'll taste wine, olive oil, and balsmic vinegars. yum.
This is the Basilica of San Lorenzo. It's the oldest church in Florence. As you can see the outside of the church was never finished, but the interior is beautiful.


A real life European mime. And yes, with super creepy dolls. wierd.

Finally on the tour w/ tour guide Andrea from Australia. She came to Florence for vacation and on her first day she met her future husband. She said to becareful, but I had no such luck, lol.

Here we are facing piazza St. Spirito from the St. Spirito church.

This is the home of Bianco Cappello, the natural red-head from Venice, and mistress to Francesco Medici. You can see the Medici crest of balls in the center of the house surrounded by other graffito. The two misteriously died at her country villa days apart - believed to be poisoned or murdered. Whether or not bodies were ever found is up to scholastic debate. Super cool art work to see in person.

An actual craftsman in his shop - metals.

So TRUE. We feel this way in Nurnberg sometimes too. Dear American readers - when traveling abroad think about blending in. In particular there is no need to YELL.

This is an actual HOLE IN THE WALL. Also called the original neighborhood bar. The owners of the house in the city also usually had a villa + vineyard in the countryside, so they would bring their wine into their city cellars and sell it out of these little holes in the wall. In the evening people would gather here.

Classic Italian laundry.

Cosimo Medici who paid for the building of the Uffizi and used his wife's money to buy the Pitti Palace, had this corridor built from the Palace to the Uffizi so that he never had to deal w/ the public, smell the trash, etc.

Here you can see it going around the tower who's owner said "hell no" I wil not give you my 4th floor to put your private sidewalk through. People are still amazed that the owner wasn't killed for such a thing.

This is a medival Florence tower or home. You can tell from 1) the height, 2)the erradictly placed windows, 3) the small windows, and 4)the posts coming out about 1 level up. The posts would be at the main entrance level. This way if there was a war or fight, everyone could just pull up their ladder to be safe. Likewise, the kitchens were on the top floor so that if there was a fire, they could rebuild and save the lower levels. Often there would be bridges between the towers for families to socialize, since women often never left these towers (ugg). This also where the term, "don't burn your bridges" comes from. The large arched entrance on the bottom was added later.

The little glassed-in entrance would have been main entrance w/ a porch above.

Here is my dinner (apparently Florence is known for it's steaks, but this one was not soo good) in a little piazza near St. Spirito. I could walk you there, but so far, can't find it on a map.

They had a dj booth set up and clearly all the locals gathered around for appertivos and dinner. Not touristy = very good.

They started showing a slide show. Total random visuals as you'll see below....

Dragon-ball-z I think???

Everyone always needs a Bravarian German.

Walking back to the hotel - Ponte Vecchio again.