A visit to Florence Food Market

Oh how I wish I had access to such a brilliant market!
The morning after we arrived in Florence, CBC and I discovered the building that is the Florence Food Market.  How we regretted not finding this place last time we came to Florence! There were food stalls and shops in abundance boasting the finest of Tuscan goods.  Pasta in all colours, shapes and sizes- dried and fresh, alcohol, jams, preserves and then there was the delightful fact that so many items were free of packaging. Don't get me wrong- there was a LOT of pasta and items IN plastic but there were so many options without!!!

 On the stall below, all sorts of dried fruits were available to buy. If you took a bag, it was a compostable one.

 Sun-dried tomatoes as pick and mix! CBC and I bought 500g!

 Nuts and seeds.

 The vegetables were all as nature intended and HUGE!  Nothing here was in packaging and there were so many different varieties!

 The beans to the middle and right were around 40cm long! I was utterly amazed.
Courgettes retained their flowers.

Peppers were enormous as were tomatoes.

CBC and I decided to buy the ingredients to make dinner for the 7 of our party who would be there at our villa in the evening.

We bought tomatoes, Basil, peppers, Parsley, Garlic, aubergines, courgettes, onions and just put them in our bag.  They cost us 7 euros for a lot.

Then we headed over to the fresh pasta stall and bought Spinach and Ricotta Tortellini and Ricotta and Lemon Tortllini- 1kg of it for 11Euros. It came in a paper bag and we put it inside one of my old toilet paper bags.

I decided to grab some olives also- I had a takeaway tub with me so I got them in that.

Alaskan skies

It seems an age since I have actually taken any outfit photos but I decided to yesterday as I was rather pleased with this outfit.
It all began with this beautiful skirt from Lindybop.  I realised, when I ordered it on about the 29th December (annoyingly 2 days before the 20% off bonus) that I have never ordered myself anything from Lindybop.  My three dresses from there have been presents from CBC.  I've often admired things but been remarkably restrained considering what my will power is like in a charity shop. It's taken me about 2 months to finally give in and buy this skirt- I loved it so much I gave in in the end. It features a beautiful Alaskan sky in my favourite colourscheme.

Wasn't the light beautiful in these photos!  It was such a halcyon day yesterday in the true sense of the phrase.   As I worked in the garden later on (I hasten to add, in alternative garments), I was struck with the light and gentle air.

The top is from a beautiful Vintage-inspired boutique that CBC and I found in Florence the day we got engaged.  I tried it on and he bought it for me for Christmas that year.  When I wear it, I always remember our time there.  It contains cashmere and the collar can be worn in various ways but this is my favourite one. It has only featured on the blog once about 4 years ago!

Since the Alaskan skies were starry, I decided to add these pretty diamante star pins which I purchased from a charity-shop for 45p each a few weeks ago.

Aside from tights, the final touch was this charity-shopped grey beret with charity-shopped rhinestone bow brooch (which lives upon this hat for a few years now- bought together)

Oh, and my beloved Doc Marten boots.  I wear virtually nothing else in the wet and wintery weather...

It's lovely when a set of garments makes you feel pretty. I felt that in this collection.  

Do you have any special garments from any times that draw you back to memories or other times?

Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for your kindness over the last few days. I realise that losing out on a house is not a great thing in the grand scheme of things and I am lucky to be able to stay in my rental house.

Hope all is well with you.

xx

Amusing graffiti

Hey there,

I don't know why I am so lacklustre but not feeling so inspired bloggywise.  I still have a post to do on Florence but I keep putting off because of sifting through hundreds of photos but here I thought I'd post some amusing graffiti I saw in Florence.  I saw quite a few of these- they're pretty keen on it there.  This is the type I like- it's witty and clever like the Spitalfields graffiti- I wonder what other variations you could make on this?  Turn it into a swing?

Enjoy.



No plank-
carrying here



Use mirror



I never saw the sign