Think the heat is frying my brain…I missed a whole day of adventure to tell you about. Must have been Monday…in Florence. The girls had a tour and I had promised friend Diane I would take a bracelet she bought in Florence years ago to be repaired near Santa Croce Church. I walked over there and the store is called The Gold Market. It was PACKED! It was like they were having a half price sale on gold…except there wasn’t a sale….just people looking at gold jewelry. There must have been 50 people in there! After I got my business taken care of, I decided to walk another half mile to go to the Florence Quilt Store I had read about on-line. By the time I got there I was a dripping mess. Drank all my water, was hot and tired and really looking forward to the treat of the store…which evidently closed the beginning of the year! 100% empty. I would have cried if I’d had enough liquid in me for tears! Two doors from the closed quilt store was a cute yarn shop and I stopped in there. She must have purchased the last of the fabric from the quilt store closing, because she had a few boxes and I got a couple of small pieces…so it wasn’t a totally waster trek. Had the lady call a cab for me back to the Ponte Vecchio. We were meeting at a restaurant for lunch. This was a very nice place Evan had taken me several years ago on my birthday, and I was again there for his birthday. Il Santo Bevitore is the name of the place. The food is,delicious, but the service was so bad as to be non-existent! I got there 30 minutes before the girls, obviously burning up hot. I was seated, but the waiter took 20 minutes to ask if I wanted something to drink. When the girls arrived, we all needed help with the menu…I didn’t know what several of the dishes were and none of us could read the writing for the specials of the day. He was very bored telling us what was on the menu. We got our food and that was it. Cheri got a salad and he brought balsamic vinegar and salt. I finally got up and got us olive oil, pepper and Parmesan cheese from a sideboard. He never came back to our table. Had to get another waited to tell him we needed our check. Don’t think he likes Americans. He paid attention to the Italians in the restaurant. Hope they blessed him with a tip…cause we didn’t. Tipping is very different in Italy…it isn’t expected and certainly no 20% is ever given. Usually just a bit of change is what is left for a tip..and we have certainly been generous when we have had good service…like with Marco at Trattoria ANGIOLINO down the street. If I ever go back to Il Santo Bevitore and see this same waiter, I will walk out. We went back to Marco’s place for dinner again.
Ok all caught up with my missing day. Time to bring in the last load of clothes from the line and put out another.
Stuff is drying in about 15 minutes. Meeting friend Kimberly for,hamburgers tonight. She went to the beach yesterday and fainted on the train coming home. This heat is brutal. Hope,it is cooler where you are!