October 18, Wednesday is Boboli day.

Jack and Lynn took off early… headed for adventures which probably require a lot of stairs. D and I prepare for a more … moderately paced day. I didn’t even get up for coffee in the apartment. I’ll just grab an espresso dopio at the first cafe/bar I see on our way to, the Galileo Museum! Checking off another holy sight on my lifetime Dork Pilgrimage.

We wade through the throngs waiting to get into the Uffizi and turn left at the river Arno. The museum is not fancy on the outside… fairly easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. The place houses an astounding collection of scientific tools and apparatuses. .Of course the telescopes and the devices for grinding lenses are there but there are also very cool giant static electricity generators and leyden jars and surveying tools. There were tools to make the tools with… so cool.

Next a leisurely walk across the Ponte Vecchio to the Oltrano section of the city. Well as leisurely as it can be with about 5 thousand other people doing the same thing. It’s mind boggling to me how the Ponte Vecchio exists. Not because of floods and wars and such but because there are some 30 jewelry shops selling merchandise of questionable provenance at seriously inflated tourist trap prices… Who must pay fairly significant rent or taxes for their space… and I didn’t say anyone buying anything. How does that work?

Across the Arno we duck into a little side street pizza place and order paninis and a beer. The sandwiches were pretty good but the patate fritte were really tasty.

Off to meet Jack and Lynn for a leisurely stroll through Boboli Garden. We skip the Pitti Palace and the costume collection and the dishes and the silver… just the garden thanks.

We love the garden and have visited every time we’ve been to Florence. Somehow the manicured hedges and the statuary and the fountains just don’t seem as stuffy as most formal gardens. Maybe it’s the hillside location over looking the city or the asymmetry of it but we can never seem to form a memory map of the place.

For dinner, back to Boca Poldo. The best waiters ever. Their funny, smart, helpful and genuine. I’ve traveled a fair amount and especially in a new city in a country known for it’s cuisine, I am reluctant to go th the same restaurant more than once. Boca Poldo is an exception in every way.

The one thing about Florence that I have my issues with and may be cause for me to reconsider returning, is the dearth of cats. A city in Italy just doesn’t seem right without cats. I was able to find this little guy and ask him to do a cat impression for me … for my blog … the people are expecting it…. he didn’t seem impressed. So to speak.