May Day

May Day is a holiday in Italy and in much of the rest of Europe. The weather was overcast but not cold so Dom and I decided to go to Florence for the day. It takes us less than an hour to hop in the car, drive there and park from Capannori--about half an hour less than from Partigliano.

There were a LOT of tourists wandering around Florence but because many of the businesses were closed (NOT those catering to tourists of course!) the streets were not too busy. We parked at the train station and wandered towards the San Lorenzo market. There were a few less stalls than usual and for the first time I noticed this building just cross the street from the entrance to the Medici Chapel at San Lorenzo church. I love the frescoes. They must have been brilliantly colorful when brand new.

The market was the market--full of people. I noticed that the purses are very colorful this year with lots of bright blue, pink, yellow and green leather.

We wandered over to a favorite shoe shop of mine--Cinque Lampade on Via dei Servi. It was closed but for the first time I noticed this shrine across the street from the shop. This must be were the store gets its name--Five Lamps!

We found a spot for lunch in Florence but did not stay long after we finished eating. The rainy weather caught up with us so we headed back to Capannori. This is what the piazza in front of our apartment looked like in the late afternoon.

In the picture below you can see the stage set up for a May Day concert. It looked like the concert would be a total bust because of the pouring rain and wind.

However, by early evening the skies were clearing and the streets were drying out. The concert started at 8 pm (REALLY LOUD!) and an hour after this picture was taken the streets were filled with people. We enjoyed the fun from our balcony but mostly read our books and tried to get our TV working. The concert ended by 10 pm so it really wasn't any bother.

Italy went to digital television sometime last fall. We knew this was coming and last spring bought a converter box that is also a DVD player. It took quite a lot of messing around over several days but finally we got the converter box doing its job and we now have Italian television. We have missed it and now are able to watch our favorite game shows and the news. However, we have also been watching the Game of Thrones dvds we brought with us AND our DISH slingbox works here. The latter isn't terribly useful for most programs as they are on in the middle of the night here but we do have some things set up to record and we will be able to watch the NASCAR race on Sunday evening.