Today was my first full day in Florence, which I expected to be bright, sunny, hot, and humid. Well, the heat and humidity pulled through but the sun itself was taking a bit of a break, shining from behind cloud cover most of the day, and disappearing entirely during the moisture-less thunderstorms that filled the afternoon. I took this picture of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, a place where I will be spending a lot of time these next few weeks, late in the afternoon, to show you that I am under the Tuscan sun, even if it is only peeking through the clouds. I am feeling good but still a little jet-lagged and groggy, so I worked on organizing myself this morning, took a rest in the afternoon, and then went out to wander around the city for awhile. I saw an interesting argument between (I am assuming here) two lovers, with the woman crying and throwing what I think was her husband?/boyfriend?'s "man purse" in a trash can and storming off to the car while he had to dig it out of the garbage and chase after her, shouting apologies. I also enjoyed walking through the Piazza della Signoria; I find that after all the research I have done on the Medici this past year I have a whole new perspective on them and their influence on Florence . . . but that's a tangent for another (boring to most people but me) post that I will probably never write!

One last note: my long trip yesterday helped me arrive at two conclusions. First, it is worth the money to fly into Florence and not have to take a train, another train, a bus and/or a taxi. It was such a relief for my weary mind to fly into Florence and take a taxi from the airport straight to my apartment, instead of having to navigate trains and buses. The second conclusion I came to was that I really want to see Amsterdam. I had a three hour layover there and the airport was really nice. There were huge planters made of the famous Dutch blue and white patterned china, and they were full of beautiful tulips. (The tulips were fake, but they still looked nice.) I am told that it only takes 15-20 minutes to get to the city center by train from the airport which is amazing; most airports are not that close to the city they service. Lucky for me, I have two flights through Amsterdam left to go, and on one of them I have a five and a half hour layover, so I think I can make my wish come true! If the train really is that fast it should be no problem for me to go into the city, wander around for a few hours (I really want to see Anne Frank's house!) and then head back to the airport with plenty of time. But that is two months away; right now I need to focus on Florence and, more specifically, what to eat for dinner! Off to the kitchen I go!