The next day we took the train to Pisa, but I'm going to upset my chronology and move that for now so I can finish up on Florence before moving on to the excursions. When we returned in the afternoon, we visited Santa Maria Novella, a Dominican church near the train station. It was the church of Florence's wealthiest families, and each competed to embellish the church with the finest chapels and paintings. But more impressive is the world's first Sephora, in the form of a cosmetics shop run by the church since the 14th century. The church link was severed 100 years ago, but the family that took over still operates from the same ornate premises and uses many of the same recipes as the medieval monks. (The photo with the chandelier is is the pharmacy).

For dinner we met our friends Reza and Marion at Olivero's restaurant, which was a very old fashioned restaurant on a deserted street. But the food was outstanding and the service very cheerful, the kind of place where they more or less decide what you'll be eating, and the menus are largely ignored.

I even got a birthday cake (my birthday was the next day). Well, this post also marks a big step in the blog, as I started to rate the restaurants in my journal as well. I copied the Zagat's guide formula, which is a 1 to 20 scale, with ratings for food-decor-service, in that order. Somchai thinks the 20 point scale is too difficult, so he gives me his ratings on a 1 to 10 scale, then I double them. Anyway, for our first restaurant rating, Olivero's gets 16-13-17.