Saturday dawned bright and sunny and we spent the day exploring Florence. Our first stop: the Duomo, the Florence Cathedral built between 1296 and 1436. A beautiful, massive structure with a marble facade.

We were not the only tourists teeming around the courtyard, unfortunately, and the line to get in stretched to what looked like an hour or so. So we decided to content ourselves with a walk around the outside and a visit to the Basilica di Santa Croce.

Also an impressive structure, with towering ceilings and an ornate sanctuary. Many famous Italians are buried in Santa Croce or have monuments there, including Machiavelli, Galileo, and Dante.

The main church building is connected to a series of smaller buildings that form a private, sunny courtyard, where we enjoyed some peace before rejoining the crowds in the street.

Lunch at Sandy’s favorite bistro, Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco, followed our time at the church.

And then it was back to the room for a little siesta. Which was nicely interrupted by a parade down the street outside our window.

Parade.

I thought the parade was to commemorate our being in the city — national Sandy and Tom Day, or something like that. But the receptionist at the hotel told us it’s part of the Calcio Storico Fiorentino, an annual tournament for a sport that combines soccer, rugby, and wrestling into what looks like a sweaty, dirty game played in front of the Santa Croce church.

Each one of Florence’s historical neighborhoods has a team in the tournament, and the parade we saw was for one of the teams.

We got up and went back out at 5:00pm. We wandered across the river to the Piazzale Michelangelo — where they were setting up for what looked like a pizza and music festival, and where Aperol Spritzes could be had, to go, in paper cups — and found some quiet steps at the Basilica di San Miniato, where we enjoyed a glass of wine and expansive views over the city.

Dinner was pizza on the same plaza as where we ate last night, filled with young Italians and tourists out for the evening. Delicious, and entertaining people watching as well.