It’s officially the year of the bags.
Before we left, and as I was prepping for my yoga session, the woman across the way and I opened our windows at the same time. An exchange of smiles and buongiornos. And the parakeet sings and chatters happily while I do my up dogs and down dogs and half moons.
We toddled out late morning, on a hunt for champagne. I just can’t handle the sweetness of prosecco or spumanti. Scored that, so I’m laying some by for our second week when we head into Tuscany.
My secondary hunt for a leather jacket is over! It was one of those I must see it, love it deals. And I did. A rich ruby red–rather than the Michael Jackson red I’ve seen a lot of here. And no boob zippers. Hip length, nicely fitted–and the one on the display fit me perfectly. Double pockets with zippers at the hip, nice detailing. And now mine from David 2 on the way to the Piazza della Republicano.
Browse through a big tented bookstore, and found Homeport in Italian. BW wants to take some pictures so Kat and I wander over to the stalls.
Big scores for her! Bags and more bags–so her Christmas list is also heavy in this area. Really lovely bags of soft, soft leather than will crush and roll easily for packing. I grabbed a new, crushable sunhat–it’s good to have one here, and talked BW into one for himself.
Wandering on, and more bags! LOL. Jason, who’s been conflicted re the man bag–not quite big enough to hold his laptop, not quite the thing–finds this amazing briefcase/man bag/backpack. Can be used three ways, and will hold his laptop, etc. Mama buys it for him as there have been no sandals that call his name. And he buys a gorgeous wheeled overnight bag in merlot leather. Kat finds more bag gifts! And these fit easily inside the wheeled overnight, along with the briefcase/backpack.
We find it interesting that over by the big cafes, the two guys out hawking for business–though both side-by-side places are pretty packed–are arguing as they protect their territory. And in the stalls, the guy next to where we bought the carry-on continued to hype his version (Jason didn’t like the texture) even after he bought his. Competition is fairly fierce in this area.
We pick one of the cafes, have a nice lunch. Jason finally finds a calzone–and it’s HUGE. It’s a busy, bustling place, very nice food, more upscale misters.
There’s a carousel near the big Roman arch here, that moves at a sedate pace and seems to amuse the kids. It’s a bit quieter today, maybe due to the holiday, but it still seems to me there can be no one left in Asia. I know it’s a really big place, but two out of every three tour groups we see are Asian. It has to be the big time to come to Europe from Japan and/or China.
BW goes off the take pictures and the rest of us haul our trophies home. We go a new way, winding along the streets–many shops closed for The Assumption, which is also a bank holiday. I wonder how the shopkeepers decide to open or close. Even though the choices are more limited, we did very well.
No gelato today–yet, but it’s so nice and quiet here in the room we might just laze awhile. Someone was playing the piano in reception, very well. A nice little bonus.
We may stir ourselves to do The Pitti Palace tomorrow, our last day in Florence. Or not. We’ll check our moods in the morning.
Nora
If I don’t buy Christmas gifts this year this travelogue 😉 and Nora are to blame ahahah
Does she ever stops? I was away for the Holiday and missed all the other buys so I’m going back before I check which aircraft carrier is heading Italy to help her haul ALL that back home ahahah
Thank you for keeping us posted,
Teresa
I’m kidding as inspired by Nora’s forethought I already started my buys the past Wednesday – books and an amazing bag that turns into backpack that was a gift in exchange of buying those two books but will appear insed a friend Christmas pack :).
Thank you Nora. 3 done, 3000000 to go ahaha
Loved Florence for the art, architecture but especially the shopping so I can certainly relate to the tempting leather buys. Like an idiot ( not sure why I didn’t ship it) I carried around my porcelean hawk sculpture & my sister-in-law Gab, who was born in Italy but was raised in the US carried her ballerina sculpture which just added to our luggage. Italy has some great porcelean artists. My mother who booked the trip first class all the way had assured all of us that there would be help to carry our things but we all learned a lesson about “first class” European style and most importantly, not to pack more than we could carry. We went as a family too and had so many adventures, both good and bad we still laugh about it today- especially the things that at the time were not so funny.
I have to say 2 things. First I love the sharing of the adventure Nora and her group are having. I was in Italy last year as an older student on a study abroad program in Italy with 40 twenty-something college kids. An experience I’ll cherish. Many of things Nora mentions bring back the memories. Love it.
Finally I want to mention that one requirement for our Italian culture class was writing a short book with pics we took about our personal experience during the trip. I thought I did pretty well, however reading Nora’s descriptions makes mine fall flat. Oh well. That’s why I lover her writing and that I am not a writer.
Enjoy the trip and thanks for sharing!!!
I don’t care for the guys hawking at restaurants. We tend to avoid those after having some bad experiences at a few in other countries 🙁
Congrats on the great finds. I think I’ll have to consider shopping in Italy for the perfect bag. Can’t seem to find any I like here…
Soooo… Any chance there will be some photographical sharing of said bags?? My husband would be conflicted right along with Jason & the man bag quandary. I’m trying to picture this bag to see what swayed the conflict pendulum in the end.
The leather jacket sounds uh-mazing! Particularly love the shade of red. And no boob pockets — a major plus!
Glad you got a nice jacket. The Italian leather feels like butter!!!!!!