Come si dice "blisters"?

It's been a nice couple of days but our feet are a little worse for wear. 500 year old cobblestones can do a number on your tootsies, comfort shoes or not, and we have been logging some miles. Can you imagine trudging around on these streets wearing the kind of shoes those poor 15th century women must have been strapped into? Not sure about Tammi, but I need more bandaids.

Monday night we went down to a bar called "Volume" for an after dinner drink and some conversation. This place was highly recommended by Stefano and is another that just happens to be steps from our door. It was loud and crowded when we arrived but cleared out after a bit and we were left almost alone thinking we'd struggle yet again to find conversations in Italian. Just then the manager, a young guy named Neri, sat and patiently chatted with us, correcting our grammar and suggesting things we could do to practice. He was busy with the bar and certainly didn't need to play teacher to a couple of middle-aged women. We did look kind of hot so we like to think he was seeing if he might get lucky (he did not). Yesterday we walked to Le Cascine to a weekly flea market. It was very crowded so we trudged back to our side of the river and over to the Boboli Gardens behind the Palazzo Pitti. A 16th century wonder of 15-20 acres, it's a rambling masterpiece, although a bit in need of TLC. One thing
it isn't short on is hills and we climbed them all. At some point we decided we didn't care if the guidebook said it was a must see or not, we were not taking another step. A gelato was
in order, then straight back to the apartment for some R&R. I'll leave out the part about
almost getting hit by the minivan. By the time we put our feet up at home we'd walked 6 or 7
miles.

Later we walked over to Adri's house for dinner with her and her beautiful daughters. It was an absolutely perfect evening and, as we told her, the best food we'd eaten since arriving. We both want the recipe for the veal meatballs and the bacon wrapped prunes. What a treat to share a family dinner at someone's home here in Florence. It's something most "tourists" don't get do. We stayed long enough that she suggested we take a cab home. She didn't have to convince us. It was another 2 miles back home and my feet said no way.

Today the Mercato San Lorenzo and then we met Adri for a long walk in the hills above Florence. Another 7 miles. We're at home now resting up for tonight. Adri and two of her friends are taking us out for girl's night. They know a good martini spot not far from here. Sounds great, but it better not be too far!

A couple more observations before signing off...

1. Dogs can apparently go just about anywhere here. Restaurants, stores, no problem.
2. The towels in our apartment make great skin exfoliaters. They would also make great sandpaper.
3. Contrary to what Tammi thinks, it's not my feet. The apartment really does smell.