Buongiorno, Firenze!

It's our fourth day in Florence or, as they say in Italian, Firenze. Here are a few scattered notes about the city and our experience here so far.

Our apartment is on what they call in Europe the fourth floor. In America, it would be called the fifth floor. There are 86 or 89 stairs (Lisa keeps counting, but never gets the same number) between the bottom and here, so we are getting lots of great exercise on top of our long walks around the neighborhood and the city.

On the street behind our building is a school, and every weekday we are awakened at 7:50 by children waiting outside for the doors to open at 8:00. It's a rather pleasant sound to which to awake.

Our neighborhood is on the opposite side of the Arno River from the city center, which hosts most of the big tourist attractions. Over there, it's Michelangelo and the Medici, the statue of David and that famous painting of Venus, the dome and the cathedral. It's also crowds of people, lines, souvenir shops, and more tourist crowds. There are four main bridges that cross the Arno. The most famous one is the Ponte Vecchio, which means old bridge, which is filled with shops along its sides and tourists everywhere.

Over here, it's micro-sized: narrow streets, even narrower sidewalks, tiny shops, little squares, cafes, pizzerias, and restaurants. We can get over there easily to see the sights and participate in the hubbub, but it's awfully nice to be able to come back here to relative peace and quiet. There is one big tourist attraction about a 15-minute walk away on this side, called the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens. Entry is free to state-run museums on the first Sunday of each month, so we got in free last weekend to the Boboli Gardens and walked an approximate half-marathon through the gorgeous backyard of a Renaissance ultra-wealthy family. Stay tuned for the Lemon House post that Lisa is going to write next!

Today it's pouring rain, so we went to a grocery store and bought the ingredients for Zuppa Toscana – appropriate for our location, although we are making the American version, which contains fewer vegetables and adds cream: sorry, Italy! Cooking soup with your spouse in a red-tiled kitchen in Florence on a Tuesday afternoon, as the rain pings on the roofs and children sit in classrooms in the school across from the window, is a heartwarming experience we wish upon everyone.