Firenze Boutique

[CMT]

I know this same thread has been made a few times here, so I'll do my best to make it stand out a bit from the others.

I married my wife on June 11, 2011, with a TRFer as my Best Man. My wife and I spent our honeymoon in Montecatini Terme, Italy, and while we visited a lot of places during our time there, I really looked forward to visiting Florence. I've had my 112F for a long time, I purchased it in early 2004 at the beginning what would become Panerai's current popularity and for a long time it was all I wore. Being a longtime Panerai owner it was hard not to want to see the "FIRENZE" that accompanies just about everything associated with the name, and in 2011 I finally had my chance.

We took the train from Montecatini to Florence and walked around for a while. I knew I'd be leaving the boutique with a strap, so before I had something other than the camera to carry we decided to shlep the 400+ steps up to the top of the Giotto's Campanile bell tower. Halfway up the bells rang for noon, and we were directly underneath them - It was loud. Real, real loud.

The steps leading up the Campanile were narrowly cased, or at least I thought at first, having no idea how narrow the passage would become towards the top. This became especially tough as, encountering groups of people on their way down, everyone had to flatten themselves against the wall to allow the other to pass and a lot of the dudes had a not-so-fresh smell.

Once back on the ground, enjoying our space and fresh air, we made our way down to the Panerai Boutique where I purchased a brown Riva strap to commemorate the experience.

On the train to Florence from Montecatini:














Off the train in Florence:



















The Campanile:



The stairway up:



Inside the Campanile:



Getting up there:









The Duomo as seen from the top of the Campanile:



Florence as seen from the top of the Campanile:









At the top, this was the stairway looking down. It was far narrower at this point than when beginning the ascent from the ground floor:





Back down on the ground, the back of the Campanile:



The Duomo from the back, showing the construction:





Finally, the Panerai Boutique:























I went with the brown Riva strap, which to this day is my favorite strap on the 112:





Back at the house getting ready to go out that night:





Thanks for checking out the thread! For your patience, here's a bonus pic of David and his dingdong that I took blindly in the Accademia Gallery, and that almost got me thrown out for the effort.