Damien & Annie's France and Italy Trip: Day 16

We get up early and head across town to Mercato Centrale. The same place we had been yesterday for lunch, but this time, we go not to eat, but in the words of the immortal Franco Cozzo, "Comprare" That's "to buy" for those not familiar the former North Melbourne, Brunswick and Footscray entrepreneur.

Here's a photo of Annie in our street, which is empty. Normally, this whole area is full of people waiting to buy a sandwich, or, eating the sandwich that they just queued for an hour to buy.
Because the shop is not open at this early hour, here's how our street looks.

Here's the same street at any other time of the day or evening. This is today's "Where's Wally" style shot. 10 points for the first one to find Annie.
This happens every one of the four days we were here. I am not sure what it is about these sandwiches that has everyone in Firenze lining up for them, and we don't find out, as we are not lunatics. There are other shops twenty metres away that have no lines.

Here's the view from our front door in the other direction. Note the tower looming over us. I'm going to refer to it a little later.
The market is about a half hour walk.
On the way there, we stop at a shirt shop and buy a commercial quantity of Florentine shirts. We then proceed to the market, where they have approximately 250,000 leather stalls - each selling the same things. If you want a leather purse, wallet, belt, jacket, suitcase, etc.

Being not the slightest bit interested in these stalls, I took no photos. So here's a couple from google. These stalls are everywhere in Florence.
If you need a belt...

...or a bag, this could be the place for you.

We wander around the fresh food section of the market. This is something we do everywhere we go. They usually have things like fruit and vegetables and chees and meat.

This one turns out to be no exception.

I am trying to think of something interesting to tell you about this picture.
...
Nope.

This picture reminds me of my current physical state. As fit as a butcher's dog. Not.

We found a fresh pasta shop deciding that the restaurants of Italy could do without us for one night.

Here is a woman wrapping up pasta. Exciting stuff, huh?

Later that night, Annie cooked a beautiful meal of pasta, porcini funghi, and sun dried pomodoro.
Most of the pasta has been eaten.

I returned to the apartment (fighting my way through the sandwich queue) while Annie remained at the market to do some shopping for gifts. She bought herself a lovely gift - a leather jacket, and various other bits and pieces for the folk back home. If you don't get a present from Annie when we return, she probably doesn't like you very much.
Hard to believe, but I did some blogging at this time.
On Annie's return, we decided to head up to Piazzale Michaelangelo for "Panoramico" views of Florence. We wandered over Ponte Vecchio and made our way through steep streets on a less than direct (intentionally) route towards the elevated tourist bonanza. For a little while, we walked along the old walls of the city (now just a quiet backstreet), before coming to the old gates of the city. We took no photos during this walk.
Sorry about that.

Here is the old gate to the city. There's that wall I was talking about. This is at the bottom of the hill.

There are many stairs to get up to the summit. Here are some of them. Annie and I are well acquainted with stairs by now, and we hold no fear of them. I'm not going to mention them again.

The view from the top (the Abbazia de San Miniato) is breathtaking. We spent quite a bit of time in the church up there, and surprisingly, I was not struck by lightning.
Remember that tower? Well here it is.