The first Saturday of the month is the day when many of Florence’s museums have free admission. This results in a bit of chaos as many people go to the museum just because it is free and they have no idea what the museum is about. [This statement was wrong. It’s Sunday that has free admission. But the description of chaos stands.]

To make things worse, this Saturday was particularly chaotic because on Friday there was a general strike (il sciopero) as Italian unions were protesting the situation in Gaza. This meant no trains, planes or buses, and museums were not open in the morning, which of course resulted in a knock on effect the following day.

Many people, me included, decided not to travel around—except on foot. Started early in the morning going to Piazza Santo Spirito‘s market to buy some fruit and vegetables.

The weather has become decidedly cooler. It was 10 celsius at 8 am. I walked to the Ponte alla Carraia which was busy

but a few streets away, it was quiet

I tried the second location of Gelateria Carraia

still as good as the other location

I wanted to find somewhere to sketch but first stopped at San Felicita in Piazza, a small church

with a Ghirlandaio, the painter who was Michelangelo’s teacher, although Big Mike claimed no one taught him

I went to the Rose Garden, where I painted over two weeks ago

It was difficult to see past all the people whose numbers seemed only to increase as I sat there.

After half an hour, I decided to move on. I tried walking up a road I had not been on before, Via Belvedere, which went to Forte Belvedere and looked like it met the road of il mio appartamento. It was quite steep at points.

I thought there might be somewhere to sketch but on the outside of the Forte, it was mainly a car parking lot. However, I saw the entrance to the Boboli Garden by Forte Belvedere had no queue. (Check the queue in the photo at the top of this post.)

I have looked at the Boboli Garden from inside the Pitti Palace but never been in the gardens. I decided to go in.

There were people sketching but I didn’t know what I was looking at. I later found out it is Torre del Gallo, part of what used to be a fortress, but was remade in the 20th century and is now privately owned.

I walked down towards the Pitti Palace

Tried sketching part of the Palazzo, which has quite crazy details when you pause to look.

Vasari says that Brunelleschi designed the building and was assisted by Luca Fancelli. But like much in Vasari’s Lives of the Artists he was wrong. Almost all art historians think Fancelli was the architect. The front looks Renaissance, with classical style; the back looks Mannerist with exaggerated elements.

There was a woman sketching near me. It turned out that she was the leader of the group of young women who I saw sketching earlier. They sounded Australian.

For dinner, I went to Zeb which was recommended by my friendly wine supplier. It was good for a solo diner because seating is at a counter like a sushi bar.

There are a lot of wines available by the glass. Hard to see but inside the counter are wine bottles.

The cappellaci, a big ravioli, filled with ricotta and truffle, with more truffle on top was excellent and accompanied it with Zeb’s own label of super Tuscan wine.

For secondi, I had coniglio (rabbit) stuffed with fennel sausage and liver. Also good but more than I could finish.