I woke up this morning after a very comfortable sleep in a very comfortable bed in the hotel in Florence and went down to a breakfast similar to the ones I had in Milan.  The first thing on the day’s agenda was to walk to the Florentine Leather School, which was about a mile away.  The building was originally a Franciscan monastery, but the facilities have since been converted into a workshop and school for leather craftsmen.  The artisans have the skill to custom make any leather product a customer desires, so their outlet did not have very many products for sale.  I was able to by a very simple wallet that I am hoping will simplify my day to day  life because I be keeping track of less.  The school was the coolest thing I have seen on this trip so far.  I really liked that the whole thing is run in the antiquated style of producing extremely high quality products that cost a lot of money and that are made by an artisan.  I appreciate the quality of products and I don’t mind paying for an item that is good and durable and will last a long time.

After the leather school, we were released for a free lunch.  I had a very good pasta carbonara that tasted much more eggy than it usually does, but I found myself enjoying it nevertheless.  After lunch we went to the Gucci museum.  I didn’t like this museum because I don’t think that Gucci needs to have a museum unless it is something that outlines their history as a company, but but this museum doesn’t do that.  Instead its an exposee of past clothing lines that gets updated.  It seems like the whole thing is just a cash grab.

We went to the Galileo museum of science next.  The museum was a sort of history of science in general, starting with optics, then chemistry, then moving into anatomy and then into electricity.  I thought the museum was very interesting and the guide was very knowledgeable.  I especially enjoyed the demonstration of how to tell time at night based on the north star.  There was also a really cool interactive area.

After the galileo museum, I went out with the boys and found a very inexpensive restaurant to eat at for dinner.  I got a pasta and then some lemon chicken as a second dish.  Then Captain Kirk and I got lost after we went out looking for juice and ended up wandering around the city for like an hour.  Florence is pretty sketch at night so we were glad to make it back as easily as we did.  It was a pretty cool day all in all.