A fun, but rainy Sunday

The weather reports had said rain for today for a while, so there was no surprise when I awoke to rain.  It did not rain all day, just on and off, and mostly off, while staying pretty dark outside.  Emily and I went into the center and saw a couple of public art installations in conjunction with a biennial for food and wine in Tuscany.  There is a picture below of the butterflies strung across the Ponte Vecchio.  We also stopped in at a photography exhibition at Pallazzo Vecchio of landscapes in agriculture around Italy.  Really beautiful pictures.  We finished by going through the food fair that is part of the biennial and having some fresh donuts, made just before we arrived.  Em and I both had one, then walked around the fair and I went back for another.  Emily had a couple on Friday, and she was lucky enough to be there right when they came out of the deep fryer.  The ones I had were still fresh, but not quite like the ones Em had.

We stopped by a olive oil tasting and festival at Pallazzo Medici Riccardi, and sampled around 15 different oils, all from the area around Regello, a common riding location for me.  We decided on a couple and bought 5 liters of one, and 2 mezzo liters of 2 others for sampling.  We picked up a 3 liter container that Emily will take to a friend in Colorado, along with a mezzo liter of another for him.  I had taken my pack, but it was still heavy with all the oil, so we caught a bus that dropped us a block or so from the apartment.

I went for a long walk / stroll, in an area that I had first explored last Sunday when the weather was similar.  I went up through the park by our apartment, then a couple of blocks on the street to another park, which connects to another park, which connects to a garden / park at the Museo Stibbert.  This is a really wonderful amenity to have right by our apartment, and I was out around 2 hours just strolling through some beautiful, relatively manicured natural settings.  Home for a relaxing night, then I start a new set of Italian lessons tomorrow morning.  It will be 4 days a week, 2 hours a day, so it is not too much.  Hopefully it will give my Italian a push to continue to improve.  Ciao.

Here are the pink butterflies strung across the Ponte Vecchio.

This shows a mosaic with stones in a set of steps in the park by our apartment.

One of the many beautiful paths and corridors in the gardens at the Museo Stibbert.

These mushrooms (I think) were growing on a tree stump in the Stibbert gardens.

The light caught my eye, and I took a picture through barred glass of this interior

in the Stibbert Museum.