Wednesday was another bright sunny day with a chilly wind, but we were up and off by 8.30 and had our stand up coffee’s in a little cafe close to the apartment. Then we spent a good part of an hour trying to locate the original apothecary/pharmacy/perfumery which was behind the Santa Maria Novella church. We asked directions twice and found the street with the help of Google Maps. It just took a bit to figure out that the street numbers went up then down, then up again, and odd and even were on the same side for part of the street. It was a great old building that had housed the apothecary since the 1600’s, with amazing painting’s and architectural design’s on the ceilings.
It had a wonderful fragrance that was altogether sort of herbaceous, floral, and woodsy. We spent an hour and a half looking around and trying different products. The quality and selection was impressive!
We had a full day ahead of us though, so we headed towards the river to the Galileo museum. This was a great stop and incredibly interesting with all the medical instruments, telescopes, globe collection, maps/charts of the world, and electromagnetic experimental items.
There was a hands-on area that was filled with a class of 8 year old’s. It was fun getting in line with them to try out the various experiments..mostly because they were terrible at lining up, (culturally in Italy there isn’t much in the way of queuing and it’s every man for themselves), and I had to keep sending them behind us after their turn.
After another quick coffee we were headed back across town to The Academy, to see the famed statue of David by Michelangelo. We had about an hour before our scheduled entry time and found a little restaurant offering a Florence specialty called Lampredotto, for lunch.
This is a stewed dish made from tripe from the fourth stomach of a cow, that was deliciously seasoned with garlic, tomato’s, onions and local herbs, and served sandwich-style…. Sandy opted for a vegetable and bread stew.