Caspita! Wow! It’s been over four weeks since I arrived. It doesn’t feel like it maybe because I have been quite busy the past three weeks what with language school and two weeks of art school. After more or less settling into mio apparatamento, maybe the days will move at a more sedate pace.

More work today at scuola on pronominal articles and conversation about living spaces, la cucina (kitchen), il soggiorno (living room).

I had nothing booked for the afternoon so I decided to walk around the area of the apartment building. Instead of going down, I walked up the street. Almost directly across is Casa di Galileo, a plaque says it is where he lived in Florence.

I kept walking up the street next to the wall of Giardino Bardini

I reached a fork and decided to take the rising road and reached Forte di Belvedere. Entrance looks like it is free and there are supposed to be good views. I’ll have to return. My choice, however, ended up taking me away from the area of il mio appartamento.

At Porta San Giorgio, I went along Via San Leonardo which went for some distance along walled houses with nice looking gardens.

This gate had guard dog statues as well as a sign warning about il cane:

I think this is Chiesa San Leonardo in Acetri. This was taken through a gate so I couldn’t go in to investigate.

I eventually arrived along side of a busy road.

Have to keep your eyes on the walkway as there are missing and loose stones.

I started to get glimpses and then good views of the Duomo

Eventually I was facing San Miniato al Monte which is behind scaffolding as it is getting a restoration. There’s a sign saying it will be complete by August 2025. Hmmm. . .

I could not tell if you could go inside. There seemed to be a door not blocked but it was closed. The campanile was also under wraps.

At least you still have great views.

I had only seen random people walking the opposite direction from me but from San Miniato, the crowds started as I neared Piazzale Michelangelo. To avoid them, I turned onto the path to the Rose Garden.

Leaving the Rose Garden, I was back to the old city walls and the Arno.

On the other side of the wall is a gelateria on my list, Il Gelato di Filo

I had been walking for over 90 minutes so I thought I should sample a piccolo coppetta. I had to call “buongiorno” because no one was at the counter.

Very good cioccolato fondente and nocciola. I was disappointed to find I was scooped more cioccolato than nocciola. I definitely wanted more nocciola. Luckily, I realized this gelateria is very close to the classroom I am in. This may be my lunch spot in the future.

I walked past the school and instead of returning to il appartamento by the shortest route, I walked on which takes me past an original wine window. No longer operational.

The wine windows originate from late medieval times when wine producers wanted to avoid middle men and sold the wine directly from a palazzo. In 2020, during Covid, one enterprising restaurant restored its wine window to sell glasses of wine but maintain social distance.

The wine windows have now become a thing (part of the Stanley Tucci phenomenon?) but some are original and some have been constructed in the past five years.

When I have bought groceries at the closest shop, I have returned to il appartamento by walking through the archway, which is the shortest route, but this time, I went up the nearby stairs.

At the top of the stairs is the street that my apartment building is on, Costa San Giorgio. It goes a bit up and down.

From my windows I can see a narrow street. It turned out to be a dead end. Looking from that street, I can see the green shutters and bit of brown door of my building.

That ended the exploration. After two and a half hours of walking, I returned to il mio appartamento to study pronominal articles.