Chillin’ in Firenze

Being my last day in Florence, I decided to just chill and wander some of the 
areas I had not been to. It was sort of quiet today give the Labor Day holiday 
with lots of stores either not opened or opening late. But I found some 
interesting places. My first big find was probably the only store in Florence I 
can afford. It's called Tutto e 99 and it stands for everything is 99 cents... 
in other words, an Italian Dollar Store!! Love it! Wish I had found this earlier 
since  they have drinks and snacks that are a third of the price that you'll 
find by the Duomo. Gotta love a bargain! 
 
I also found the Mercato Centrale, which stands for Market Central. It was this 
huge open air flea market (I included a picture down one of the lanes). Stands 
were set up in all direction and there were many leather shops (I love the smell 
of leather!) But of course there were also lots of T-shirt places and tacky 
souvenir stands. It was a fun atmosphere and many people were out bargaining 
away. There's also a huge indoor version of it, but it was closed today for the 
holiday. I also came across a cute little restaurant and the food was great. I 
included a picture of the inside of it. I tried a sampling of three of their 
Tuscan soups which are very hearty vegetable soups with the consistency of more 
like a chili. Umm, umm good! 
 
I also learned that Florence Nightingale was named after the city of Florence. 
Her parents were traveling thru Europe and stopped in Florence for awhile and 
that's where Florence was born and so they named her that. It was May 12, 1820, 
for future reference for my Trivia team! 
 
Today I didn't take a lot of pictures but am including a couple from prior days. 
I included two from the Galileo Museum here in Florence. It was a great hands on 
museum showing off all the cool inventions from Galileo. I included a picture of 
both some old telescopes as well as an old time clock. I also included a picture 
from back on the island of Capri with a neat Taxi. Love it! 
 
All in all a very relaxing and comfortable day in the beautiful city of 
Florence. I take a train early tomorrow morning back to Rome and have one last 
day of whirlwind touring to see a few of the Roman sites I didn't get to see 
before. Take care. 
 
Jeff