Day 19 -- All by my/our self in Florence

Well at 4:55 this morning my sisters and my brother-in-law Mike got into a cab to head back to the US. I woke up at 3 to make sure Donna was up, laid back down again when I knew she was up, and then woke up again 5 minutes after they left -- NO!!! Well maybe it's because I don't like goodbyes and don't do them well. It is a sad truth about me -- I love hello! And hate goodbye.

I met with the Rector of the parish after finishing my morning prayers and breakfast -- ar the church at 9:00 -- the Rev. Cn. Mark Dunnam -- what a very kind man! We went over the service for Sunday and located vestments for me. Perfect!

When I returned to the townhouse I double checked and of course my sisters  had stripped their beds and cleaned their bathrooms before they left so early this morning! Steve had gathered all the sheets and towels and we were off -- to the laundromat!

We met a nice young man there -- Matt-- from the US -- an air traffic controller on vacation  doing his laundry. What a nice young man! One hour later everything was washed and dried -- perfect! A nice macchiato caldo in between -- life is good!

We went back to the townhouse and made all the beds and we replenished the towels in each bathroom.

It was nearing lunchtime so we headed out to the Mercato Centrale-- what a place! A few pix and our lunches:

It is CRAZY busy there!

We went over to the opera to buy tickets -- here is Steve in front of the opera house:

Next was a trip to our little grocery store to buy supplies and then back to rest for a while.

We headed out to my new favorite area of Florence -- All Saints piazza -- had to stop by there before meeting friends:

Said prayers there and the headed to the Westin on the same square -- wow the views from there are incredible!

After we left our friends we headed to the rooftop terrace of the Hotel Baglioni -- we took our time walking through side streets to get there. What awaited us? Yet another beautiful view and a nice dinner!

A nice walk back to the townhouse on this beautiful night in Florence!

Along the way all day -- as I have on other days -- I took pictures of interesting doorways, doorknobs and doorknockers -- here are some from today:

...and other interesting pix:

Total steps walked so far today: 18,507 -- 7.12 Miles!