Wednesday Santi Apostoli

I felt a bit pleased with myself for a short time today. On 2 occassions I was mistaken for Italian. It rained all night and was raining intermittently  all morning. First thing this morning  I was walking back to my apartment after my early morning  cornetto ( croissant not icecream) and coffee. I stopped at a pedestrian crossing as did a man with a dog. A car failed to stop for us ( not uncommon) and he turned and spoke to me in Italian. I hesitated, opened my mouth and spoke and he said in English  Sorry, I thought you were Italian. I was wearing my good ( well, it is almost 20 years old) thickish  gortex knee-length purple  all weather jacket. We chatted for a block . Later I was on my way to the oldest, supposedly, church in Firenze,  Santi Apostoli.  I think I rather rudely once a few weeks ago called a group of tourists on a tour swarming down the street like nasty insects. Well, when they all have their umbrellas up, there are more like wasps. Quite dangerous to the eyes if you are not protected with your own umbrella, even with your hood up. I was waiting to cross a street and an Italian gentleman started to talk to me in Italian. I understood and replied in Italian, but he again said he thought I was Italian. I was quite chuffed, pottered on and realised it was the knee length coat. Most local women had knee length coats on, the vast majority  , by far, of tourists have an umbrella and waist or hip length at most light weight rain jacket.  Ah well.

Santi Apostoli was built in the 11th century, but  there is evidence that it could have been earlier.   Apparently it is the only  Catholic church in Florence that has 1 service a week in English. It is quite a small church building but is apparently ( from the notice board  )  an active parish. I was the only visitor, but there were 8 people fiddling with the lighting in the church, checking some of the spots, changing the direction of some  of the lights. At any one time about half were doing nothing, while the others turned off and on some lights.  I was reminded of the " How many ... does it take to change a light globe" joke. The apparent boss of the group  was the only woman.  I read the details  in an  interesting  pamphlet about the church and I took my time looking at and reading about the paintings in the few side chapels.  That was it for the day. I wandered back along streets I had been along, stopped for another coffee ( actually , as usual late morning,  the coffee is the price I pay to use the loo) . I stopped in a park for a while and read my book.