Florence / Firenze

We backtrack to Florence, where we'll be staying a couple of nights in anticipation of Jeanne's flight out of Vespucci airport on Monday.  Rain is threatening, so we take the bus down form our hotel in Fiesole to take a walk around.  Despite it's being late October, the historical center of town is still crowded with tourists, throngs around the Duomo, shopping on Via Roma, a packed mass shuffling across the Ponte Vecchio.  A passing American woman squarks in a loud voice "...and I simply MUST have my roasted chestnuts before we go..!."  It's a bit overwhelming.  We split up for a while, then meet up on the steps of the church in Piazza Santa Croce, which is somewhat less crowded but incongruously filled a collection of "bounce house" type amusements with their growling generator-inflators.