The month of dicembre has brought with it some extremely cold days. We had a little snow about a week ago and the Christmas spirit with all it's associated shopping activities and festivals is in full bloom now.
I had another opportunity to go to Rome again. After walking through the historic downtown area and
viewing the colloseum, I took a bus to a very large park. While there, I found a surreal looking
pond that had larger than life sculptures overlooking it. There were people rowing little boats on
the pond.
After walking a long ways through the park, I came to an overlook of Rome and took this picture.
In the upper left corner of the picture, you can see the Vatican.
Back in Florence, the umbrellas were popping up like daisies, as heavy downpours caused
the argno river to swell. I was standing on the very crowded ponte vecchio (old bridge) when I
took this photo.
To give you an idea of just how crowded the ponte vecchio can get, take a look at this snapshot of
a flood of humans pouring through the street. The ponte vecchio has a history of its own.
According to a friend, this bridge originally hosted a row of butcher shops on it's sides.
After a series of events (I'll explain later), diamond shops replaced the butcher shops.
A street empties into piazza republica, one of the main squares in Florence. This is a heavy
tourist zone and the price of everything sold in this area is increased. But then, atleast
most of the shops and restaurants in this area are open almost all the time.
We end this month's blog, with a snapshot of my bagno (bathroom). Look at how narrow it is.
If you are sitting on the toilet and you lean forward, you will smack your head on the wall.
A "big" person would have no hope of turning around in this bathroom.
A native living here, tells me this is very common in Florence. I now remember my first
appartment also having a narrow bathroom.