After an aggravating day of sightseeing with other people yesterday, I decided I needed a quiet day, alone, without much "touristy" stuff. And, since I never had a birthday cake, I decided today was the day to finally find one. I went to Piazza della Republica to Gilli, the best, fanciest and oldest (I think) pastry shop and cafe in Florence. :) I got some tea and a chocolate torte. Mmmmm....
It was expensive (I might have to skip dinner!) but good and they forgot to charge me the table fee ("il coperto")--I didn't point that out to them.Then I wandered a bit, and did some window shopping.
A cute puppet shop.
A Borsalino hat shop--I think Simon has one of their hats, but the ones in the window here were considerably more expensive (I think they ran from 250-800 euro!).
A stationery store with traditional hand-marbled papers.
And candy!
And then I walked by this interesting sight: A renaissance palace with a Chinese Buddha statue and a modern sculpture. Uhh, that combination makes perfect sense.
2 comments:
Did you ever study Ghandaran Greco-Buddhist art? Ghandara was a colony of Alexander the Great in the Afghanistan area, where Greek sculptors made Buddhist imagery rather than Greek mythology subjects. It's the source of all Buddhist statuary, and of all human-figure statuary in Asia, I believe. But that image doesn't look like it, so I don't know why I brought it up. Buddha figures are "in" now. There are even Buddha themed bars/nightclubs. It's more pleasant to drink to than a skinny naked guy being brutally tortured, I guess.
actually, come to think of it, Christians drink in church. no bar necessary.
Post a Comment