New York has Harlem, Florence has Via Ponte alle Mosse

Fridays are wonderful and this friday was exceptionally wonderful.  Our roommates went to Venice for the weekend (yippie skippie doo) and the Gorilla and I had our Italian wonderland all to ourselves. After a rather long night, we slept in and by that I mean we woke at 5 am and stayed awake until 7 am while the devil did his damage at the gates of purgatory (aka my street) and then we went back to sleep and re-woke up at 12 pm.  I am not sure if you can technically count that as sleeping-in but we didn't get out of bed until then.  We made a delicious breakfast: our speciality, eggplant-spinach-tomato-omelet-in-a-pita delight and a big glass of black-as-death coffee (well, mine was more like black as death coffee with a side of milk, while the Gorilla's is straight black, she comes from the jungle and is thus able to drink death).  We decided to have breakfast on the roof because it was a beautiful morning. We met our neighbors, I think it was the same guy that saw the Gorilla's hoo hoo's the day before and we waved hello to the Duomo climbers. We decided to disinfect our house after the animals left, so as we used to do in the Isenberg household back in the day, we had a house cleaning party. I even mopped the floor and did a load of laundry.  Our weekend plans were up in the air (we knew we were going to go to Pisa and Lucca with our group on Saturday but today and Sunday, we were not so sure), but we were told to do all of the touristy things in Florence this weekend before the herds of tourists started coming.  Apparently in the next month the population of students/tourists in Florence is going to double.  The Gorilla and I decided that we were going to climb the Duomo and 460 steps later, and a little out of breath, we were standing on top of the world. Literally.  We could see the entire city, in the north we could see the snow on the tip top of the mountains and in the south the Arno was glistening.  I met my future husband on top of the Duomo but unfortunately he a. didn't know it b. he was studying in Rome and c. his friend had booger in his nose. After our Duomo workout, I finally went to the phone store to get a new phone because when shit happens, when water flows, when bags fill up with rain and phones swim in the streams, they stop working.  So, for those of you dying to call me...which I know you all are, my phone now officially works. The Gorilla and I were going to rent bikes and explore the city but by the time we got to the rental place, they only had one bike left.  I was willing to get a child seat adapter and pull the Gorilla around town like at a circus when the clown rides around with a monkey but they didn't give us that option, so we opted out of doing the whole bike thing completely.  By the time we made the executive decision not to play circus, it was already 5 pm. The rest of our day gets a little weird but it is a typical example of an adventure for me and the Gorilla. We decided to go to an apertivo because like all other nights, we didn't want to cook.  I geniously decided to google "best apertivo in Florence" and found a place that was supposed to be the best apertivo in the whole city.  I get the Gorilla all excited, we even get all dolled up. We started walking to this place called "Elliot Braun Bar", the Gorilla finds the street that it is located on on the map and we make our way there.  We assumed like all hoppin' places in Florence, that it would be relatively close but no it was not, not at all. I didn't even know that Florence had a ghetto, but I am a witness to it, and it does! We finally found the street that the bar was located on, only to walk for another 20 minutes, realizing at this point that we were no longer on the map. We finally get there and it was closed. We walked to the ghetto of Florence to eat at the cities (supposedly) best apertivo and it was CLOSED.  Come to think about it, it didn't even look like it had been open for over ten years. Probably because it was in the ghetto. The night only gets better.  We haul our hungry tummies back to our neck of the woods but obviously the adventure was not that easy.  We had to go to the bathroom really bad and peeing our pants was not an option.  We stop at one hotel because all of the coffee bars were closed but apparently the hotel manager tried to convince us that it was closed, even though we were standing inside the hotel. We walk another 2 minutes and go to another hotel. For the fear of being rejected again, I, in the heat of the moment, decided that it would be a good idea to throw out an accent when asking to use the restroom.  "Excuse me sir, my friend and I just missed our dinner reservation and we really need to use the restroom, do you mind?" was how I asked.  The Gorilla believed I sounded similar to a deaf Australian but it worked.  Either he pitied me for having such a bad accent or he was truly concerned that we had missed our dinner reservations and felt sorry for us (which doesn't really make sense why we needed to use his restroom, but like I said, it worked) On the way out, I made the Gorilla thank him. We finally found a pizza place somewhere between the ghetto and home because by then we were not too concerned with what we were going to eat for dinner (we wake up every morning saying that we are going to be "healthy" but that has yet to happen) We go to this restaurant, order pasta and pizza from a waiter who looks like he stuck his head in a vat of olive oil. Throughout our entire dinner, he kept stopping my to sing songs in my ear, give us free wine and make weird eye contact with both me and the Gorilla.  An hour later, and a little tipsy from the free drinks, we decided to leave.  Satisfied with both the meal and the price of the meal we headed home, leaving oil head a little tip.  We hadn't made it down the street before oil head comes running after us, calling for us.  At first I thought he wanted to get our attention and tell us something, then I realized he was holding something and I thought he wanted to give us back the tip we had left him.  I yelled back to him, "No, its for you". I repeated it several times but he still kept waving and calling for us.  Finally, I went back to see what he wanted and he was holding my ring that I had left on the table by accident (the Gorilla and I were romantically sitting together and she wanted to see a ring my mom had given me) When I met up with him, he gracefully put my ring back on finger and then he kissed my hand.  A little bit of oil dripped on to my hand in the process.  At this point in the evening, I was spent and the Gorilla and I came home and went to bed.