March 17, 2011 - Happy San Patrizio/ unification day!!!

Not a huge day here, as far as our activities are concerned. A lazy morning (which I think I'm getting a little too used to - it's going to be a system shocker when we get home!) It's day 3 for John and Dianne, and for me, that's ALWAYS the worset day of jet lag, and I think it really hit Dianne today, so we opted for a light day.

We headed to the Ponte Vecchio. We had crossed it previously on our trip home from the Palazzo Pitti, but it was so crowded that day that we didn't really see anything. After a quick lunch at a cafe near the bridge, we headed onto it.

The Ponte Vecchio from down the street.

You can see the Vasari Corridor going along the top. You can tour the corridor if you make arrangements, which I think would be fascinating, but I will probably be saved for another trip! It used to have butchers and tanners occupying the stores, but now is lined with jewelery and gold stores. I thought they'd be kind of junky stores. Man! Was I wrong! Chris is still in Malta, but I think we might have to make a return trip!! John and Liam were kind of "meh" about the whole thing, but all us girls were in heaven! I don't know how you'd ever choose something.

On the bridge.

Looking up at part of the Vasari Corridor

In the middle of the bridge

The back of all the stores "hang" off the bridge like this, supported by wooden beams

After taking a good look and making a few notes, we decided to head to a cafe for something warm as it was a bit of a rainy, chilly day so we headed towards one of the squares to find a nice spot to sit down when...what's that smell? WAFFLES!!!!

Now, we don't have much of a night life here (as opposed to our BOOMING night life in Canada! snicker snicker) so we have been watching a lot of movies and such on iTunes - total aside...Chris and I have been watching "The Tudors"  and it's been extra interesting because so much of it has references to what we just saw that day! Anyway, we just rented Shrek IV and there's this whole bit with Donkey talking about the waffle fairy. Well, it goes a little like this...

click here to watch about the waffle fairy!

So this smell is fairly common every so often to just hit you smack in the nose and make you cry mercy. Even in our apartment we'll get the occasional "come hither" from the Waffle Fairy. So, as I mentioned, it was a chilly day and warm waffles sounded much better than cold gelato. Warm waffles with Nutella are deadly.

Bliss

Seriously, bliss.

None of us grown-ups got one, but the kids ended up getting a waffle sandwich which was a bit much for the little ones, so we helped out. These aren't your ordinary, average waffles. Oh no! There are little chunks of sugar in the dough (we watched the girl make some) and when they are baked, the sugar becomes these little nuggets of caramelized crunchy goodness.  We didn't even care that we had to eat them in the rain.

May I just say that it's getting a little embarrassing - all the talk devoted to food on this blog. Oh well. It really is one of the highlights of this trip!

After that, it was determined that we were too chilly and too tired to be bothered with a cafe (and too full of waffles, anyway) so we decided to head home for some naps/ chilling out, but not before Dianne and I ducked into a few leather shops along the way.

John and Liam and I ventured out later in the afternoon to forage for dinner and see if an English language bookstore was open. It was not, nor was the butcher's that we wanted to go to, as today is national holiday and for shopkeepers it was optional to be open. The passeggiata was packed as most most people had the day off. The Irish pub was also hopping. If it was this busy at 5:30, I'm sure it will be packed to the gills later - I'll let you know because John and Dianne went for a walk to try and tire themselves out a bit for sleeping tonight!

And there goes another day of la dolce vita!