I often avoid il centro (downtown) on Saturdays because I always think that there are too many people milling about. Today, I decided to go for a walk in the early evening down Borgo degli Albizi. I was planning on going to my favorite profumeria (profume shop), but it was closed. I then noticed that many of the shops and bars were also closed.
Not all of the shops had signs, but the ones that did displayed their orario estivo (summer hours), which included either being closed on Saturday or at the very least Saturday afternoons.
Now that it's summer, many people leave on Friday nights to go to il mare (the sea) and return Sunday usually in the early evenings, a.k.a. the Florentine weekend migration. The Florentines, and most Italians, love the sun and will do anything to go even if only for one day.
It seems as if the number of tourists must have also decreased because there weren't that many people walking around on Borgo degli Albizi today. It seems like there were more people in centro in May and June.
So now I'll have to change my Saturday habits for the summer and go out shopping in the morning because in the afternoon everyone is probably al mare.
Share your comments for this blog post on the Living in Florence's Facebook page. Grazie!