Monday, July 2, 2012

Road Trip To Ybor City

Sunday, we headed to Tampa to have dinner with Cape Cod friends who were there for a week. We had planned to meet them around 5:00, so we got into town early to go to Ybor (pronounced EEBOR) City.

Ybor City is the Latin Quarter of Tampa.
In 1886, Ybor City was established as the center of cigar production in the United States.


There is a small State park with a museum...
...which was once an Italian Bakery...


...a small courtyard where people can sit at tables and play dominoes.
You can rent the courtyard for small weddings.
One of the casitas was open to the public.
Surprisingly, it was a comfortable, 2 bedroom house that was affordable enough, at $400, to be bought by a worker with small deductions from his paycheck.

The art on the cigar boxes is really beautiful.
We walked 2 blocks over to the entertainment district of town.
We ended the night with a great dinner in Clearwater and a beautiful sunset on Clearwater Beach.


4 comments:

Monnik said...

Beautiful pictures!

"In 1886, Ybor City was established as the center of cigar production in the United States."

My husband would LOVE THIS! :)

Anonymous said...

My grandpa smoked cigars--I loved the boxes they came in--so pretty. And the occasional whiff of a cigar still brings him to mind.

Patience_Crabstick said...

It looks charming!

Monica said...

This makes me homesick! I live in Minnesota now but I grew up in Clearwater. The beach shot is beautiful. At the end of the school year our Spanish class would travel to Ybor City to sample the yummy Spanish foods. Good memories, Lovely post.