Yes, nice to meet you, Lucca.  It’s a pleasure.  I’m really glad to wake up and know that we will be here for 2 weeks; we totally unpacked our stuff, stashed the suitcases and feel at home in the apartment.

We left with the excitement of new discovery and just started walking in the general direction of the supermarket recommended by the landlord.  The streets are not straight here and before we knew it were consulting the map.  So, we wandered, got lost, and enjoyed.  We passed the small Conad in favor of the store represented by the little ball point pen dot on our map.  We got some basics (the store was less than satisfactory) and wandered some more.  I filled my little water bottle at the fountain and asked the woman there, doing the same, for a good bakery for bread and she gave us the typical, unfollowable, Italian directions, sending us kind of back where we came from.  Asked another man and he sent us in another direction.  Finally I saw a gastronomia shop and went in.  Although he had no bread, he had really fabulous take away prepared stuff and a friendly smile.  We finally bought some bread at a spot across the street from him where they make sandwiches.

Heading home, we succumbed to using the google map in the phone–we were way off base for finding our place.

We unpacked and settled into a delicious lunch of veal with porcini and a bunch of roasted veggies.  We will certainly be back to that guy on via Mordini.

Rest time included lots of worries about our kids in the path of hurricane Matthew and a nap.

Our afternoon walk was heading for the apartment our friends, Anthony and Lyn, have reserved for Saturday.

We passed by the duomo and I realized I hadn’t been taking any photos so I snapped this one:

We got a coffee and found the right street after stopping into the San Michele church where I spied this gorgeous della Robbia (a favorite of mine and many Slow Travelers) work. Della Robbia was from Florence and lived in the 15th century; he did these unique and beautiful white glazed terra cotta plaques, usually of the madonna and child.

We found the Conad again and we like it better than the other store, but I think we’ll try to stick to the little fruit shops for the most part.

Here are 2 more random shots from our wanderings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Window shopping results:

 

 

 

II

 

 

 

 

 

At home, I made us a nice chicken salad dinner with some focaccia and the red wine left for us by the landlords. Oh, and also, a bunch of yummy cookies we bought at a little fancy looking pasticceria. We worried a bit more about Hurricane Matthew hitting Florida, and about Josh, Teresa, Mavis, my sister and her family, specifically, who all live in S. Florida, kept abreast of the newest public advisories minute-by-minute, watched the last episode of Stranger Things, and went to bed hoping for the wobble that would move Matthew further out to sea.