Florence

As we move on through my Cruise Series, we now find ourselves in Florence, a city brimming over with amazingly beautiful architecture and art.

First, my little video  - it comes in under 3 minutes and captures the essence of the city.  

The cathedral was so beautiful and absolutely huge.  There’s also footage of our deluge experience, so well worth a look. 

And with no particular order to my photos due to my iPhone download limitations, I share with you now my pictorial memories of Florence.

Our tour bus took us up to the perfect vantage point to capture a panoramic of the city.

Our tour bus stopped off at a perfect vantage point outside the city to capture some fabulous panoramics.

The bustling square cleared in a nano second when a thunderclap overhead emptied its heavy load upon the city.

The hailstones were the size of hazelnuts, and hurt - it felt like we were under fire as we raced the few yards from coffee shop to cathedral.  The video at the beginning of this post includes some footage of the deluge. 

Just before the deluge.

I'm an untidy tourist.

Ponte Veccio, with a hint of finger!

A la perchoine,

Mary x.

Cruise Postcard #4

Smart-casual dinner.

Next black gingham/embroidered dress, casual metallic sandals.

I’ve picked up a few lovely summer dresses in the Next sale.   I’m abruptly moving from knee to midi length due to OAP leg issues - you might say it's a bit of a knee-jerk reaction (see what I did there?!).  Serendipitously, I’ve found a few #retirementdressing beauts in the sale.  This one is a light cotton, perfect for cruise temps.  It’s like wearing in-built air conditioning!


Food on-board - Breakfast this morning.

I'm mega impressed with the food on-board.  I imagined it would be cold rubbery buffet food.  WRONG.  The buffet breakfast food is freshly prepped and cooked (some to order) and nourishing.  The dining room food is out of this world and in just the right portion sizes to allow me to taste three courses yet still feel comfortable leaving the table.

We’re happily grazing on fresh fruit and vegetables.  And what's the best?
We're eating BETTER than we eat at home!!!I

Off for a swim now.  See ya!

A la perchoine,
Mary x.

P.s.  I suspect using data may result in me being whacked by my service provider on return so I may now resort to just posting on Instagram and then resume my daily diary back home.  So why don’t you follow me on @thepoutingpensioner?!!

Cruise Postcard #3

A blue/grey striped dress allowed me to blend in with my surroundings last night. 

It looks maxi but is midi IRL. 

Not a care in the world ... or maybe just one - clutch or crossbody?

Oh and maybe one other - how to resist all this amazing food?!

An awesome pea soup.

An Asian prawn dish. 

And some fantasmagorical triple choc indulgence.

Yup, it’s a hard life, but someone’s got to do it eh?!

A la perchoine, 

Mary x. 

Cruise Postcard #2

I was determined not to splash out on dresses for our three formal nights onboard, so I pulled out some oldies for the travel suitcase.  Things that I don’t get to wear any more in retirement life.

As I slipped on this dress tonight I spyed the laundry tag still pinned inside.  June 2009.  So my forensics reveals that the last time I wore it was to a wedding in Boston in June that year, had in dry cleaned on return, and there it has hung patiently waiting in my wardrobe, just hoping that I would have one last chance to wear a rainbow pink silk number again.  And  did. 

Tonight was it’s night and it served me well. 

The ship’s cook served me well too. 

As did the sunset.

I could get quit used to this.

A la perchoine. Mary x.