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We woke this morning with the horrifying realization that at some point we would have to get out of our sleeping bags! The air in the tent was cold, no doubt the air outside would be colder still and the showers required a short walk.
Warm and clean we headed to the onsite cafe/bar to grab some breaky and for less than €10 we put away 2 coffees and 2 croissants each, the croissants being filled with delicious jam, chocolate or cream. We were now ready to officially start our day.
We headed first to Piazza Di Sants Croce where you find the Church of Santa Croce and being early on a chilly morning it was relatively clear of tour groups. We also found a nice leather shop here and set about trying on leather jackets, another reason to visit Florence.
The great thing about the time of year we are travelling is that it the "shoulder season", the period between the summer peak and the winter snow. Being the end of the peak season we have effectively come during the sales as retailers try to move stock left over from the summer onslaught of tourists. The majority of leather retailers here are selling at up to 50% off, making expensive leather jackets and gloves suddenly more affordable. We had always planned to buy a jacket and gloves each and the sales now meant it would leave a much smaller hole in the budget. Happy Days!
Walking back along the Ponte Vecchio Sarah stopped, a ring had just captivated her from one of the windows. The shop was called Fallaci Elisabelta and was shop number 22. It seemed the age old saying of "you'll know when you see it" was about to come true.
It was white gold with an oval sapphire in the middle and three small diamonds on each side. It was beautiful. I went inside to try it on. I tried on a few other sapphire and diamond rings just to make sure. We decided that that would be the one, we left it to be resized and headed off for lunch while the jeweller made it a little smaller.
With a few hours to fill in while the jeweller worked on resizing Sarah's engagement ring we took the "hop on/off" bus up to Fisole, a town in the hills above Florence. We'd bought the ticket yesterday which covered 48hrs so we were pleased that one of it's routes was out of the city. Fisole offered spectacular views over Florence and surrounding region, the hills on the way up having a distinctive Tuscan feel about them.
Now the time had come, we went to pick up the ring. The size was perfect, Sarah has been wearing my Grandmothers engagement ring for the past 6 weeks which had given her a clear feel for sizing.
It now sits proudly on her finger.
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