Thursday 29 May 2003

Hot Sun

We awoke a little tired and stuffy in Firenze. Whilst Tom dressed, I looked through the book to find somewhere nice for breakfast. We handed in our hotel key and paid the balance of the bill. Breakfast was very pleasant, looking over Piazza de Signora – cappuccino’s with streusel for me and lemon tart for Tom.

We walked up to and had a good look around the Cathedral, Duomo, Baptistery and Campanile exteriors. Then we spent some time inside the Cathedral – blessedly cool thanks to all the marble. We decided we did not need to go up the Duomo and went for lunch instead.

It was registering 34°C (93°F) in the shade by now and we were feeling the heat. We chose a lovely café called Gilli's, mainly because we liked the 1920’s décor and the 1920's music, but it was in the guide book also. As soon as we had ordered our meal, the subtle 1920's jazz was suddenly replaced with a modern repetitive banging that forced us outside - much to the amusement of our waiter. We had pasta to start – I had tagiline limone and Tom had tortilini with a tomato sauce – both were delicious. Then we had one portion of escallops in chef’s sauce to share – the waiter put down the full plate in front of me then placed a clean plate in front of Tom and said it was for the dieter. The meal was delicious when we could get a bite through the giggles. Desert was even better, if that was possible. I had almond-cream pastry and Tom had a gorgeous raspberry tart. The waiter brought us another cool drink with two straws – blue for Tom, red for me. His sense of humour had us in stitches. When we paid, he explained that he had lived in Newcastle in his youth and had had an English girlfriend from Nottingham. We bought some chocolates from the same place to enjoy when we get home.

We strolled back towards the train station via St. Lorenzo and lots of market traders. We caught the train back to Viareggio, hot and not too energetic but glad that we had been to Firenze (for the food at least). Fortunately we had not misinterpreted the street cleaning signs that announce which nights parked cars found on certain streets will be towed away, so Box Jnr was still where we had left him. I hit the shower while Tom made supper. A relaxing evening was followed by a welcome early night.