Europe Summer 2013: Florence

FLORENCE

To anyone who follows my blog, they know that Florence/Tuscany is my favorite region in Italy.  BTW, as an aside, the Amalfi Coast and Lake Como are my #2 and #3 favs.

My daughter, Cayla & son-in-law, Dave

We've visited Florence many many times and have enjoyed it's “outdoor museum” experiences.  Wherever you turn, you see something to admire whether it is spectacular architecture or paintings at the Uffizi or even the views from the hills overlooking Florence.  Whenever my family visits Florence, we shop until we drop.  It is the best city for shopping for designer products as well as local leather goods including purses, wallets, belts and gloves.   In fact. Florence is know for their glove stores that actually measure your hand and place the gloves on your hand palm forward.  This is a very unique and wonderful experience and the styles and colors are endless.  (HIGHLY recommend getting fitted for custom gloves.)

Son-in-law, Dave on the left and Jeff on the right - Twinsies!!!

We arrived into Livorno quite late and had planned to use the ship's bus transfer to get to Florence.  In the long run, it was a good thing because we would have missed the train we had taken before because the ship was late and it's not always easy finding a taxi to take you from the pier to the local car rental agency in Livorno BUT we really only had 6 hours in my much loved city ... the good and the bad.

Il Latini Restaurant

@ Il Latini served Family Style (Top Right: Ribollita = FAV!)

We met up with 2 of our 3 daughters and their families in front of the Savoy Hotel and off we went shopping.  Italy's July Sale Season begins July 7^th so I missed my favorite "saldi" (the word in Italian for "sale") signs in the store windows.  We visited our favorite stores for window shopping and then walked over to our family favorite, Il Latini Restaurant for lunch.   It was great as usual!  We enjoyed their salads, excellent soups and Bistecca Florentina!  All was served with their Chianti Wine (House Wine) served in a jug - So fun!  The best part was as we were leaving, they insisted that we take 2 of their Il Latini Chianti's and a bottle of Moscato Wine with us as a gift.

Dessert @ Il Latini

After lunch, we went to the area by the Pitti Palace to visit our favorite low retail leather shop, Anna's.  Anna's offers quality leather goods and Missoni clothes and scarves at a slight discount.  Mrs. Anna as we lovingly call her works with her family and we marvel at her energy.  What a great business woman!  If you are looking for quality leather coats both lined and unlined or excellent handbags, wallets or belts please keep Anna's in mind!

My next blog is going to talk about our special cooking class in Sorrento.

Stay tuned!

Inside Pic of Il Latini
Note the fresh plates of prosciutto being sliced on the Right

The World is Our Playground!

Mari