Italy Trip – Days 15-21 – Florence- Part 2- First Day Errands

As has been typical in each new place, there are some errands that need to be run when we arrive in a new location. In Florence, even more than the groceries, we were still having phone and shoe issues.

Monkey and Dad had a lovely outing on our first night in town. They walked a great deal, had gelato, wandered down the Ponte Vecchio, all closed up like a treasure chest. It was great. And Monkey had blisters from it.

Another shoe solution was necessary.

Monkey and I headed out to old town Florence. We were in search of shoes. Not “Italian Shoes” as my friend Liz exclaimed excitedly when I said we had to get shoes for Monkey.

We were in search of crocs. Yes…crocs.

Monkey had a pair of crocs at home. I insisted they were too old and ratty for this trip. We picked out a pair of keens for her, to match what the rest of us had. By the end of travel to Milan, she was hobbling from aching feet.

In Milan we bought a random pair of shoes at the Giganza, and those worked okay.

We tried another pair in The Dolomites. Again…okay.

By Florence, I was desperate to figure out how to get her shoes mailed to us (not feasible, it turns out), or to find her a new pair. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we learned there was a store in Florence to buy crocs not far from us. Purchasing one more pair of shoes on this trip was well worth the money if it saved her from more blisters and allowed her to walk the miles and miles we were asking of everyone.

We walked across the Arno and headed toward the Duomo.

Google Maps has had some hiccups in Italy. It seemed to know right where the store was, but there was no store where it thought there should be.

As we wandered by the Duomo, the sketch and caricature artists began to call out to the red-head. After careful consideration, she chose the artist she’d like to have sketch her.

While she was having her portrait sketched, I wandered around to find the croc store so she wouldn’t have to walk any more than necessary.

We were successful.

We had such a lovely time together, we had needed gelato to celebrate.

After the gelato celebration we headed to the Vodaphone store where I stumbled my way through explaining to the Italian gentleman that we need more data on our phones. Willing spirits go a long way when the language barrier is a tough one.

New shoes on feet, faster phones in hand, and gelato in bellies, we headed back to our Florence home to see what the family was up to.