St Armands Circle

You can see it as an outdoor shopping mall, a tourist trap, or a traffic circle to navigate on the way to Longboat Key--and it is all of those things. But St Armands Circle, on Lido Key in Sarasota FL, is also a sort of urban-pedestrian-cultural-park worth visiting because it's a beautiful and easy getaway for a few hours of high-tone sitting, sunning and gawking.

Pedestrian crosswalk and seating area, St Armands Circle, Sarasota FL

 A mile or so down the road as you exit the John Ringling Causeway across Sarasota Bay from downtown, the exhilaration of zooming over the bridge immediately slows, as traffic bows to pedestrians in the crosswalks between each block of the "circle" of shops and restaurants that makes up St Armands Circle. 

Pedestrian crossing at St Armands Circle, Sarasota FL

There are eateries representing most types of international cuisine here.

Columbia Restaurant, St Armands Circle, Sarasota FL

Plenty of outdoor sitting and schmoozing takes place in artfully placed nooks between circle traffic and shops.

Pedestrian seating area, St Armands Circle, Sarasota FL

At many of the crosswalks, you can pause to admire white marble statues representing the "virtues", which were inspired by John Ringling's travels to Italy, where he purchased most of them in the 1920s. Several more were added in 2007 by Sarasota organizations dedicated to the ongoing preservation of the Circle.

"Music" statue at St Armands Circle, Sarasota FL, next to "Allegory of Sarasota, it's Seven Virtues" 

"Bounty" statue, St Armands Circle, Sarasota FL