Travel Day 11 – Acquired Florence Taste

We began the day a little later than normal, at 9:00 we were out of the hostel and on our way to the Leather School in Santa Croce. On the walk over, once we crossed the river, we found a lot of. workshops and places that made genuine Italian products. They ranged from woodworking such as cabinets and photo frames, glass work and chandeliers as well as leather bound book making and book binding. As we walked by one of the leather book makers I dragged Dean in to take a peek and ended up walking out with a new leather bound book. Leather journals are my favourite and I can’t wait to get home, buy some ink and start writing in it with a fountain pen.

Continuing to the leather school, found just in behind the Basilica de Santa Croce was the leather Scoula de Croce. This hidden little masterpiece is a great place to find genuine leather goods. You can witness the leather craft right at the end of the hall in this reused church. We spent a bit more time here browsing before we set off yet again to wander the city and see what more it has to offer. We continued back to the central market, stopping this time to touch the snout of the boar at the Fontana del Porcellino. Another place in Italy to complete the ritual and promise a return. After that we found a place for lunch and decided to head to the Gardino de Boboli.

The gardens were gorgeous and we had to climb an enormous hill to get to one of the better views of Florence. Once more both Dean and I found some of the best views and photos from the gardens. I truly can’t stress enough to all of you to visit the parks and natural areas in cities. If I were a teacher and giving homework, that would be it. After the gardens we walked back down to basically the river, to then walk all the way back up to the Piazzale Michelangelo. That is THE BEST view of Florence. We stood there almost 15 minutes just staring at the skyline alone. Absolutely stunning. As the clock struck 16:00 we decided to head back and look at a few more stores before heading to dinner at Baldovino. Personally an amazing 9/10 and the wine was glorious. Just get the house wine everywhere, it’s delicious and best bang for the buck by far. We were so stuffed after dinner that we had to head back to the hostel to sleep off the food babies we each had (mine was named “Tommy”).

The past 2 days we have really just been exploring, and I’m sure Dean has the entire map of Florence memorized because he always knows where he is. Mostly exploring and shopping so there’s not too much to tell. Tomorrow we don’t have much planned again as we’re just enjoying the time and the city. This has been a much nicer trip than the last time I was in Italy, purely because of the time we spend in each city really finding every nook and cranny we can and running down the rabbit holes they are to be shocked at what we find. Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

~Spencer

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