One for my sister.

Firenze is a great city to spend your money on cloths and fashion goods. Leather work is a traditional trade in Firenze and thusly a large part of the market is leather jackets and bags, and then there are the shoemakers. Since I'll be riding the Gran Fondo Mondiale Toscana Franco Ballerini tomorrow, I decided today would be a good day to spend walking around the city to shop for a few things.

I first made my way through the San Lorenzo Market, which is an historic open air market of mostly leather goods. This is where last year my sister and I spent too much time and too much money. After running into a few vendors that we spent lots of time talking with last year, I ended up coming home with the leather jacket I mentioned earlier and directions to a "really cool" vintage store just around the corner. It was there that I immediately recognized these insane prints and "color stories" as my sister calls them of Emilio Pucci, my sister's favorite Italian designer. I snapped some photos and sent them to my sister right away (without thinking that it was like 7am back at home). I figured she'd be crunching numbers in her bank account to figure out how I could bring this dress home for her.

During the following hours, I walked back and forth around the area between the Duomo and Piazza della Signoria, going in an out of shops looking for a pair of shoes and a high neck button up cardigan. If only my sister were here, I probably would have made my mind up about the shoes a lot earlier. I was torn between two handmade shoe shops that were separated by only block or so. I went back and forth a few times, then I walked back to the apartment for lunch... and then walked all the way back again. Luckily in the process I met some very helpful (and patient) shoe sellers (one was the owner of the company, in fact). Remember when I said that the airport check-in clerk helped extend the budget for my trip? Here's what he bought me:

Important to note that I wouldn't fold my jeans up, just want to show the shoes.

Also, here is a quick pic of the jacket. Sorry to anyone from my cycling circle that is reading today, but my sister will really enjoy this instead of my carrying on about some awesome climb or a bike race. There will be much more of that later. In fact, tomorrow is the Gran Fondo and I'm sure that will be an epic adventure. Ciao for now.