Saturday 
firenze

I don't know Italian, so I had to look this one up online. It is a monument to those fallen at the Battle of Mentana. Garibaldi's men were trying to capture Rome for the newly unified Kingdom of Italy.
I thought these silly things had all gone away by now.
A look back across the river. I had originally intended to go up to the Piazzale Michelangelo up on the hill, which offers some nice views of Florence, but it would have been a long walk so I just wandered around the city a bit more.
The Basilica di Santa Croce. I was disappointed when I got there only to discover it was not dedicated to Jim Croce.
Dante Alighieri wrote the epic poem Divine Comedy, one of the most important works of literature in human history. Of course I've never read it. But I have read The World According to Garp, which I liked. You don't see a lot of statues of John Irving around though.
I didn't travel all this way to listen to a bunch of American singers.
The Uffizi is now a big deal art gallery, but it was originally built as offices (that's what uffizi means) for Florentine magistrates, another Medici project. It's good to be a Medici.
Aaaaah! It's one of those creepy street performers.
Piazza della Repubblica. There used to be a Roman forum here as well as a later ghetto.
Now there is a carousel.
Walking back toward the train station past the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella.
The little courtyard next to the church.
I can't say what exactly was going on, but there was a lot of flag waiving.
Then drumming and marching.
But fortunately no shooting.
Getting late in the day and not wanting to stray too far from the station at this point, I noticed on the map this fort, the Fortezza da Basso. So hey, why not check it out?
I mean I love history and an old Italian fort has to be dripping with it. So I expected military displays and lots of historical stuff. However, it turns out it is used these days as exhibition space for things like...
...the Salon di Firenze, a home decor exhibition with lots of vendors showing off furniture, home interiors and that sort of thing. Bummer.
This is where the Florence Department of Redundancy Department holds their meetings.
Another narrow street.
Since I hadn't planned the late afternoon well enough I didn't want to be stuck eating dinner somewhere, get delayed and miss the train back to Rome. So instead I just got something at the station. I had eaten lunch, so I just got a fruit cup, or as they call it a macedonia, from Mr. Panino.

By the way, that last item on the menu, Mr. Hot Dog, has ketchup and mayonnaise on it. Can you imagine such a disgrace?

The train to Rome was running late. It said five minutes, but I think it was a little longer than that.

TO ROMA