This is it: our last day in Florence has just ended. It’s 11:28 PM, and I’m pretty darn fried, so I will try to get this out quickly and enjoy my pillow for a while. Our train tomorrow is in the morning, so sleep now would be a good idea.

After getting our act together (which takes us longer than one might think), we opted to go visit Fiesole (look it up, I’m trying to get this out too quickly!) rather than stay in Florence. We took a bus there (the only other options being walking (NO way) or taxi (too costly). Bus drivers everywhere, I’m convinced, are just nuts! The speed, and driving by pedestrians and cars SO closely … I just trust they know what they are doing and hope for no deaths.

Walking to the bus, and on the bus …

Fiesole was a spur of the moment decision, so we didn’t know what to do, where to go, or what to expect. I just knew there was a “view” there. And so there was. We also had lunch there. I think we must have something like, “Please don’t pay attention to us!” on our backs or something, as it took a while to get a menu and then a while to get served. Oh well. No rush, right?

Here is a collection of images (again, as always, unprocessed and quickly posted).

Then it was back to our hotel, as usual, to rest up. We are getting good at “resting up”.

Then we headed back to the other side of the river to see the Palazzo Pitti. Some of it was closed, and the part we should have opted for was the one for which we didn’t get tickets (the gardens), but we saw two art collections, the older and the “modern” (which meant not as old as the old. Heh.). I will confess I’m getting overwhelmed by so much art and probably need a break. But what a place. Crazy ornate ceilings, frescoes and all. What a life the wealthy lived back then.

Photos (the shells and the photo after that are snippets of tables that were really amazing):

We took a short break near a church, having Aperol Spritzes and chips (seems to be a “thing’ here to have the chips — as in potato chips), walked over a bridge, and eventually found our dinner spot. Maps don’t always work well in this city!

The dinner was great (thank you, Brandon, for suggesting it!), and we met a couple across from our table who we ended up chatting with. Their daughter is a high school senior and is studying voice in the Julliard Middle School (or whatever it’s called) program, but was at a music festival in Nice. And enjoyable evening, for sure, but it went on much longer than we had planned.

This is what our street looks like at 11:25 PM. Pretty nuts!

Now goodnight. As I mentioned, we have to get up early and we have a train to catch!