Sheeeeeee’s BACK!! She’s not 100%, but Anna has turned the corner. Ciao to the ick!!

And just in time for us to nearly die of heatstroke in Florence. It was 101 degrees today. There is no deodorant that can get you through that kind of heat.

Took a bus from the port of Livorno to Florence (about an hour and a half east). We had a lovely bus guide, Lily, who unironically peppered her conversations with “Mamma Mia!”.

It’s been a minute since I was last in Florence. Looking forward to seeing it again, but setting realistic expectations: hideous heat and throngs of people.

Spoiler alert: expectations met!

Found a perfume store I wanted to visit. But it was the size of a closet. Also: no A/C. I know this is an American affliction, but I want to be *assaulted* by air conditioning when I walk into a store. Everything in the perfume store smelled like old lady and sweat. Abrupt departure.

Had to sit down and have a Coke. Might have been the best Coke of my life. It had six glorious cubes of ice. Neither one of us was hungry at all, though.

Made it to the Duomo, along with 50,000 other people. Line to get inside looped the building. Hard pass. Weird, there wasn’t much of a line to climb the bell tower. Too bad there wasn’t time – that would have been fun in 101 degrees.

Anna and I did our best to support the economy of Firenze today. Bought some street art, some leather (purple puuurrrssse), and some jewelry.

LOOK at this fabulous jacket. LOVE. But I just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm for trying on something that would make me sweat more than I already was.

Found what we were told was watermelon granita, but it was more like very cold watermelon juice. That quickly turned into warm watermelon juice, which btw, is not especially good.

Back on the bus and we are thoroughly melted. Lily is saying things about Tuscan trees, but I cannot process this until I cool down.

Small world moment: Anna ran into a friend from high school this afternoon while in line to buy a Fanta! CRAZY.

My favorite part of the day? Anna is back among the living!!

Cheers!

Travel date: June 21, 2025