Many Umbrellas and a Large Croissant

Quite a day - started in Lake Como, took a detour to Switzerland, then ended in Florence. Since the Swiss border was only a few kilometres from Como we thought, what the heck, we'll check out a neutral country. No border security so no foreign stamps in our passport though - just drove right through. Some kind of music festival going on with umbrellas in the main thoroughfare.

Plus this yarn bike in a store window:

Then we hit the autostrade right into Florence - Marj driving and me navigating. Only the occasional blue language from Marj as cars barrelled down behind with the horn blaring and passing within inches of our front fender.  Miraculously we made it to the Hertz rental in Florence without a scratch on the Fiat although Marj needed a large glass of wine as soon as we turned in the keys (plus I wouldn't let her have any for lunch). After we passed Bologna, I directed Marj toward the Firenze signs so we would get to our destination and about 10k out of Florence it finally hit her "You mean Firenze is the same as Florence".  Why DO they have different names for things in Italy????

We passed through about 100 tunnels on the way as the terrain gradually changed to the gently rolling hills of Tuscany.

 Of course Florence is as crazy as ever - apparently it's fashion week here and will be quite busy.

We've had our share of pastries the last few weeks but I don't think we could tackle this. I'm sure it's the world's largest croissant - that's larger than a dinner plate that it's on.

The beautiful facade of the Santa Maria del Fiore.  We're staying very close - if you walk out the door of our guest house you see the dome down the street.

Have no itinerary yet so we'll see what the last few days in Italy brings.