Florence the seventh

I went up to the markets this morning. I didn't have any patience for the outside bit, where stallholders try to force things and stuff upon you and the products repeat every four stalls, but the inside bit, the food market, is amazing. So much cooler than the supermarket I've been going to, where pretty much everything is branded CONAD, which I sometimes misread as GONAD and sometimes as CONAN.

This afternoon I went to the Boboli Gardens, because you know how I love things that are bobbily. You had to pay to get in, which seemed odd for a public park, and kind of mean in a city where green spaces are extremely scarce, but it was worth it, and I guess they have a lot of expenses, and in a country where the government changes so often you have to be proactive in case the next administration cuts your funding in favour of massive subsidies for shrimp farmers or excessive expenditure on underage prostitutes.

The first thing I saw upon entering. How delightful!

That building is the tool shed. I'm not even kidding - inside were hoes and potting trays and stuff

Shady lane. The place was pleasingly wild in places, after the landscaped-to-within-an inch-of-their-lives gardens in France.

Doomed to stand guard forever. That's a bit ruff.

Waah, scary Snow White tree!

These guys mock everyone who passes by. They're my new best friends.

The Palazzo Pitti, of which the gardens are the back yard. This was the seat of the Medici family back in...Medici times. It's actually a fairly ugly building. I'm sure it's the business inside, but I wasn't in the mood to be looking at draperies.

Aww, his doggy fetched him the newspaper, because he was too lazy to get dressed and go out to get it himself. See, the Medicis were no different to you or me.

So, this is in my neighbourhood, like four blocks away from my apartment, and the streets are so narrow and closed in that I had no idea there was such a high hill right there until I was suddenly climbing it.

No, your face!

The rose garden, and the porcelain museum. I hit my twee limit.

Wheat! Mightiest of the grains!

Pfft, you think you've killed a man with a trident.

Ugh, I hated this. It's a dank cave containing sculptures, made on purpose to look like it's covered in guano. There used to be some Michelangelos in there until they were replaced with copies after it was realised that Michelangelos are not displayed to their best advantage in a structure dripping with Mannerist feces.