Breakfast at 0800 in our room; ham and cheese toasties, croissants, coffee etc. We headed off to the market, looking for Miriam House of Leather Casa de Pelleas - Susan was thinking of a leather jacket for her birthday. Unfortunately the weather was against us and it was raining; so the first thing we did was pick up an umbrella off the street merchant. Allan got ripped off by spending 5 euro on an umbrella that later was seen for 3 euro. The wandering street merchants manage to show up everywhere with all sorts of merchandise. In Florence they aren't allowed to sell on the street; so they have their merchandise wrapped up in a big cloth; so they can quickly pick them up when they see the police coming. They seem to have their eyes everywhere watching.

We wandered along the market until we found a shop selling leather jackets. The sellers had a hands-off approach, which was a nice change. I found one I liked then left it to Rena to bargain and was more then happy with outcome. We wandered the streets some more looking at the all the lovely things for sale and found some leather handbags in a little shop at 58 via dei Neri, which were asking to be brought. Three handbags later we were off again (one for each of the girls). We found a lovely place for lunch just across the street at 57 dei Neri, Tavernetta della Signoria. Megan had the largest calzone you have ever seen, but somehow managed to eat it all. Alice not to be out done managed to eat a full size Margarita pizza. We also had amazing hot chocolates which were real chocolate melted. Yum. The food in Italy is just so yummy. You walk off the street and into a restaurant and there it all is. Lovely tasty food. I think we have all added a few kilos to our waistlines; mind you, the amount of walking we have done has compensated to a degree.

We went back to the hotel for a rest. Allan and Rena set off to find a silver shop that Rena had researched. It wasn't open when they arrived; so Rena suggested they head to via Santo Spirito where from her research there were some cobblers. Again the closest, Calzature Francesco de Firenze, was closed for lunch so they headed for the second, which was another km away. They had some magnificent shoes, but Allan would have to return in June for a final fitting! Back to Francesco and sons, which were now open and Allan ordered a pair of made to measure shoes that would take a month to form and then shipped home. Rena's blog tells this story.

When they got back. Allan, Susan and Rob headed out to find Rob some walking shoes. His Julius Marlowe, Mystique, size 10 and a half dress shoes were not the best for all the walking we had been doing. We walked out past the Hospital and took the short cut to the Duomo, as Allan was now an expert on Florence Streets with all the walking he had done. We eventually found a shoe shop in Florence that had sensible walking shoes in size 10 and a half. Most shops only had the trendy lightweight ones all the young Italians were wearing.

That evening we went out to another restaurant recommended by Brelina at Firenze Suite. Susan's niece Kate arrived from Milan to spend the weekend with us, which was lovely. I had a lovely risotto which had cabbage and vegies and as with all the food was very nice. It was rather a late night as we had to wait for Kate to arrive on the train before going out for dinner.