I pooled money that I got from my December birthday and Christmas and treated myself to these boots, the most expensive (by far) pair of shoes in my closet.  Here is the skinny on what I think of my new purchase:

Let's start with workmanship-amazing-very high quality leather and gorgeous, colorful flowers embroidered across the instep and around the top of the boot.  Dual zippers with leather pulls, I find this amazingly helpful as someone with a high arch to get into the boots.  For us with a high arch it can be impossible to find boots we can get into relatively easy, the dual zipper helps A LOT. The heel is just high enough-and the toe is hard and really keeps the shape of the boot. Size....I wear either an 8.5 or a 9 occasionally, so I went with the 8.5.  I would say if your foot is medium to a wider width your smaller of the two sizes should work for you.  I have a little room, but not too much, however if my foot was narrow, I would think I would have had to go to an 8.  I have normal/athletic calves, they are not "big" but I do not have skinny bird legs, so with my normal size calves I could zip the boots fine with no pitching or issues.

Breaking in....this is the hard part with boots for me.  Here were some of my challenges and fixes....the zippers on these boots are very heavy and durable and tight.....it was really difficult to get the zippers up, whether they were on my feet or not.  It was suggested that I wax the zipper so we ran a block of wax up and down the zipper, which we had heated up with a hair dryer.  I have since worn the boots a couple times and the cranky zipper issue is a thing of the past.  I did my usual trick to have them stretch out and start to get the creases for my foot started on the boot-I wore really thick socks, the thickest I could for the first couple wears.  I then went down to my normal sock and they fit like a dream.

I wore a cute brown dress (knee length) with brown tights and these boots and got lots of compliments.  Not everyone has boots like these and people can tell the quality and, well, they are just a gorgeous boot.

Overall, after you break these boots in they are a dream.  I find I really like the feel of them and the feeling I get when I wear them-great with a dress or skirt and awesome with a pair of nice tight jeans and a tee-shirt-instant classic!  These are boots that you will have for many, many years.  Buy once and buy a great pair, you deserve it.  The problem will be picking one design out of Old Gringo's many creative and beautiful styles.