Day three in Florence

Florence is an amazing place, there is a lot of history, but new art, food and culture is flourishing. I would say this is the difference with Rome, which feels stuck in the past, a town content to coast on it's history. That's not to bash Rome, as it is a must see, I just feel a stark difference.  Rome is like New Orleans pre-Katrina, and Florence is post-Katrina, where new restaurants started to pop up, the movie scene taking off and even Preservation Hall has found a new life.

So back to reality, today was wash day, clothes washing that is.  When you are on the road in hotels, you need to find a good place to wash clothes or you will go bankrupt.  Most hotels charge $3 to wash your socks, so before you know it your looking at a $150 laundry bill.  If you do your homework, chances are you'll find a good laundromat where you can wash and dry clothes in an hour or so for around $10.  The only drawback is that when it's 100 degrees outside the laundromat will be hot, but usually they have free wi-fi, so the time passes quickly.

Once we had clean clothes, we headed over to the Mercato Centrale for a little lunch. This is an amazing building that was refurbished a few years ago and has stalls on the first floor and a food court on the second floor.  Really it's the Florence version of a mall, but instead of Hot Dog on a Stick and Orange Julius, they have great pizza and gelato. If you want to shop, you should know the market is closed on Sunday's, but there are plenty of other places in town selling cheap leather goods.

On the way to the mall, we saw some really cool old cars.

Later that afternoon I  did something I thought would be terrible, but turned out to be fun. We went to Florence Fish Kiss and had these little fish eat the dead skin off our feet. I have no idea why they want to do this for us, but these little fish love human feet. It is super ticklish at first, but after 15 minutes, your feet feel nice and smooth.

Before I left, I made a special trip to John Helmer and spent an hour picking out the perfect hat for the trip, then I lugged it over here, taking special care to make sure it didn't get squashed. Turns out I could have gotten the same hat for half the price and saved the travel hassle. There are hat stalls on every corner.

Tonight's restaurant recommendation comes with a warning, Italian's concept of time is quite different from American's. Most restaurants in Italy don't open before 7 pm, and many open at 8 pm.  If you get there at opening, you will be eating with tourists. You'll get a lot of attention at first, but right as you are getting to desert or are ready for the bill, the place will be rocking and you may be sitting for a while, as waiters rush by you taking care of the locals. That said, Cibrèo ristorante is excellent. We went to their cafe next door for a drink until the restaurant opened, then got ushered in for the first seating. There are no menus, one of the waiters will sit with you and take you through the food offerings.  We thought we were being smart by not ordering too much food, but then they brought out a complementary antipasto plate that by itself was an entire meal. Still, the food was amazing, although it is by far the most expensive meal we have had so far. I would say it was overall a great experience, except for the fact that we had to wait more than half an hour for the check, which is easily forgotten on the walk home, as you think about all the great food you just ate.