Mario's story

Along with our fabulous roommates Zoe and Jorie, Christian and I hit the streets to scoop out the Ponte Viccho, an old bridge with lots of jewelry shops. As always Florence did not disappoint us with the breathtaking architecture. We did what we do best, just wandering around, taking pictures and taking it all in. In was a low key wander about morning and we just enjoyed wandering around before lunch.

Just as we were headed home to for a light lunch, we ran into a camera shop with a bunch of old cameras. Zoe and I wanted to stop and take a look and before we knew it the shop keeper came up and started to chat with us. His name was Mario and he asked where we were from. The simple chit chat of "Hi how are you" turned into him telling us his life story. He told us about his lovely wife and how much he loved her, how he lived through the war, and his beautiful family. We were all told we were beautiful and he told me I had beautiful eyes (he was an optometrist so he noticed them) and by the end, we all wanted a picture with the cute old man who talked our ear off for an hour. The three of us were brimming with smiles at the cute old man who was more than willing to spend time to talk with us about his life.