Thursday, December 10, 2015

La lettera

I had to mail a regular letter (a seed order for a seed exchange I belong to, which has to be sent by regular mail). To find a post office, I used an on-line service offered by the Italian postal system. You say where you are, and they tell you how to get to the closest post office by car or "a piedi". So far so good. But I did not have an envelope and was hoping you could get one, perhaps a pre-stamped one as such as they sell in Canadian post offices. We left "a piedi" after lunch and got there at 1:35. Unfortunately, post offices close at 1:30. That was yesterday, so that excursion had to be attempted again today. We were back at it this morning, this time trying the main post office.




Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Fiera ecologica

We woke up this holiday morning (Immacolata Concezione) and the square at the end of our street (SS Annunziatta) was transformed into an ecological fair where they sold all sorts of homemade products.

Florence by night

The downtown is as busy at night as it is in the day time. This is a long weekend in Italy and we have the impression that many of the tourists are Italians from other parts of the country who are here for the weekend. There are many families out late in the evening with children in tow. Children are  involved, even at night. There is a merry-go-round near the Duomo.




The Christmas lights are different on each street

A bit to the right, under the flags, you can see a copy of Michelangelo's David who does not seem to mind the cold (it was about +5C) when the picture was taken.


The all illuminated building below houses very upscale stores. If I remember well, on the left  is Gucchi and on the right Armani. The picture does not do these lights justice as it does not show the constant shimmering.



To end with, nativity scenes in a pastry shop.