Off to the big city!

Rain last night led to breezy and comfortable morning.  We woke to sun shining and birds singing to see the beautiful countryside around Castellina in Chianta.  Beautiful!

Leisurely morning:  We strolled through town, saying "BonJourno" to everyone and even saw a butcher at work, showing his son how to attack a slab of beef.

And Elva located her gelato (happy) bench where she enjoyed many a gelato with Peggy

Then on to Florence--what a contrast!   Thankfully, not too warm, but full of tourists and crowds wandering the street.

So we had to take the car into a restricted zone to find our hotel--grateful for a GPS which got us within about 40 yards--then getting out to turn the car in took many twists and turns but we made it and got the car turned in.  Driving in Florence was like being a pawn in a traffic chess game.  I still think it was more God's help than the GPS to get us to the car return spot!!  We walked back to our hotel, crossed the Ponte Vecchio (see crowd and gorgeous Italian model)

and then rewarded ourselves with a yummy mixture of gelato and sorbet.  Of course, there never needs to be any kind of good reason to have gelato!  Amen?

And then we went up the 87 steps to the top of the tower of our hotel Guelfa and there was the duomo and Plazzo Vecchio as the sun was going down.

When looking at this view, the years seem to roll back to centuries ago and the feeling of antiquity and beauty catch you by surprise.