Accommodations: In Florence, we stayed in a charming, very quiet apartment in the historical center, just about two blocks from the Central Market (and all the leather!) and four blocks from the Duomo. Our hostess, Sharon, was extremely communicative before our arrival, and when our taxi pulled up to the apartment, she and her mom Rosanna were waiting to help us get settled in the apartment, showing us how everything worked, giving us cleanly pressed sheets for the beds (which really impressed my mom -- "Who still irons sheets? Wow.") and leaving us with a map showing all the tourist sites, as well as some great restaurant and gelato shop recommendations (which we tried and loved!).
Day 5:
Our day started in Rome, but we were soon standing in Termini Station waiting and waiting and waiting (cuz we were a little early ;) for the platform for Trenitalia #9528 to Firenze to be announced. It finally was, about 10 minutes before the train left -- so much for planning ahead ;) The train ride was really smooth and we had great views of green hills... and then not-so-great views of lots of graffiti. That's one thing we kept talking about... how much graffiti there is in Italy and how no one seems to make any effort to clean it up. Sad.
Once we arrived in Florence, we were going to walk to the apartment from the train station because it was only supposed to be a 12-minute walk. But the GPS on the crap loaner phone, while working, was totally sending us the wrong way based on my memory of the Florence map. So we just got a cab, which quite honestly, why wouldn't someone with about 70 pounds of luggage do vs. lugging it down a cobblestone sidewalk in 80-degree heat?
After getting settled, we decided to head out for gelato at the place our hostess Sharon had highly recommended, Rivareno Gelato. Sharon said they have normal flavors and special flavors, but get the special flavors. I got one thing from each instead and ended up with a weird yet yummy mango/chocolate chip combo. (In my defense, I didn't understand the menu in Italian, and my taster spoon of chocolate chip tasted like just vanilla.) It didn't matter though, because it was delish, and they had free wi-fi, so it was therefore worth the long walk to the other side of the historical center. Here is Little Green Alien with the chocolate chip half of my gelato. (The mango went fast :)
On our way home, we passed by a lot of leather shops but just looked. We also stopped at a supermarket to buy food for breakfast and some snacks. Then we just happened to stumble upon the Duomo, which is HUGE. Once you see it in person, you all of the sudden understand why everyone in Florence gives directions based on location relative to it. We walked along the back that was undergoing some restoration. It would be another day before we saw the front...
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| Back of the Duomo |
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| Creepy gargoyle on the right side of the Duomo. You can also see all the pollution damage to the building. It looks like they are constantly restoring/cleaning the outside. But it's so big, that by the time they finish, I'd guess they have to start over again. |
After resting a bit at the apartment, we headed out for dinner around 6:15. We were going to go to one of the restaurants Sharon and her mom recommended, but alas -- as became the norm with us early-eating Americans -- they didn't open till 7:30pm. So instead we went to a restaurant in the neighborhood that was open, La Divina Osteria. The entire staff was sitting there still eating their dinner, but the doors were open and happily seated us. We ordered their vino de casa and were immediately thrilled to taste actual alcohol in it. And it was good to boot! Here's Little Green Alien, the lush :)
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| Here was a cool carving of the Florence skyline on one of the walls of the restaurant |
For my first course, I had a homemade spaghetti with Tuscan meat ragu that was delish, and then a big salad "Golosa" with ham, egg and asparagus as my main course. Mom had a greek salad and a beef in sauce main course. We were stuffed but got dessert anyway. Good thing too, because this was a dessert my mom will be talking about until the end of time. I can't find it on their website, and we didn't take photos but I will attempt to describe. She saw amaretto on the menu and decided to order that dessert. What came out was a scoop of vanilla and coffee bean ice cream, rolled in white sprinkles with amaretto poured all over it in a pretty glass bowl. Mine was close to the same, but my ice cream was vanilla bean and my alcoholic syrup was a very strong limoncello. Did I saw it was very strong? Because it was. :) Oh, and then they gave us each a shot of limoncello on-the-house as we were paying the check.
After that, we staggered home two blocks and managed to make it up the very steep two flights of stairs to our apartment without falling over. I then proceeded to watch Modern Family dubbed in Italian on MTV Italia, which was funny in an entirely new way.
Day 6:
Monday was our day of no agenda in Florence. Our only plan was to visit the Central Market for lunch and do some shopping. Oh, and take photos. I took this one off the balcony of our apartment. I felt like I'd stepped into a real-life Italy calendar :)
We headed over to the Central Market but didn't end up eating inside... it was crowded and tripe just didn't sound that appetizing. Instead we ate at this little Trattoria ("O Solo Mio") in the square outside of it, out on the patio. I was getting tired of Italian food at this point, so I had a salad and french fries for lunch. Don't judge me... (or at least wait until you hear about Day 7's lunch if you're gonna do it ;)
After lunch, we walked through more of the stalls near the market, looking at leather and trinkets, and then I decided I needed to find the way to the train station to see how messed up the loaner phone's directions really were the day before. I also wanted to walk to the Arno River to see if there were any good leather merchants there. But by the time we made it to the river, it was too hot to keep wandering in the wide open, so I took some photos of the dirty water and then we headed back to the shade of the city streets.
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| Arno River in Florence. Yes it was really that brown color. |
After wandering through the super-ritzy shopping area where Prada, Gucci, etc could all be found, we again found ourselves in the shadow of the Duomo and I took a ton of photos (below). We also found another excellent gelato place with free wi-fi (Black Bar) right next to it. Today's flavor was "fragola" (aka: strawberry). This would go down as my favorite gelato flavor of the trip. Shocker coming from the girl who had a strawberry-shaped birthmark on her back as a child and currently has two packages of fresh strawberries frozen as a winter stockpile in her freezer ;)
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| The front of the Duomo, also known as Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, and Giotto's bell tower. |
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| Close-up detail on the just a few of the sculptures above the front door of the Basilica. |
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| Detailed carvings above the entrance. Amazing. |
For our Day 6 dinner, we waited until 7:30 and then went to the recommended restaurant we'd attempted the night before, Trattoria La Gratella. Rosana said this was the best place for steak in Florence. I started out with a delish penne parmigiano on "rocket salad." (Note: we'd been seeing this "rocket salad" on menus for about five days and I finally became the brave one and ordered it. It's just arugula with a funny name ;) Then as my second course I had beef strips with tomato. Mom had ordered a Caprese appetizer I had a few bites of, and also ordered steak. It was all way too much food and I couldn't finish my beef strips. So, of course, we then ordered dessert, a chocolate cake that was pretty good (I'm not a big chocolate person though luckily). The bottle of wine we had was also delish, but luckily there was no limoncello around, so the stairs home were not a problemo.
Day 7:
Today was the day we had a 1:45 appointment for the Galleria dell'Accademia, aka home of Michelangelo's David. So we were lazy in the morning, eating breakfast in and then wandered out at around noon for lunch... at McDonald's. Okay, now you can judge me. But I was really tired of Italian food at this point and a cheeseburger and McD's fries sounded really good. And, it was on the way to the museum :P Interesting fact of this lunch trip was there is no such thing as free ketchup packets in Italy. They charged us 0.20 euro/packet. My friend Linda would not survive in Italy.
When we got to the museum, we wandered the exhibits first, full of lots more religious paintings taken from Italian churches. There was also an Andy Warhol print of "The Last Supper" on display in one of the non-permanent exhibits. They also have a collection of musical instruments from the Cherubini Conservatory, including the famous Medici Viola made in 1690 by Antonio Stradivari, which my mom, the ex-high school band member knew all about.
Once we were through those exhibits, we turned a corner and there it was, The David. It was truly awe-inspiring! I had no idea it was that tall (17 feet). And to see it standing alone in this dome at the end of a long corridor of the museum (as museum workers kept repeating "No photos. No photos!" to everyone around it trying to sneak photos) was amazing.
As I stood in front of it, a tour guide nearby was telling his group that people will argue about The David being the most perfect sculpture in the world, but there is no argument. It is the most perfect sculpture in the world, he said, and after you see it, there is no reason to look at others. It's hard to argue with that. It was carved from one giant piece of marble and the lines are perfect. Sadly, there are a few tiny cracks in the piece of wood behind David's right leg, but those cracks are hooked up to wires and continually monitored for the slightest movement. (This is the fascinating thing you can read about in the back of the statue as you walk around it 360 degrees.)
I really wanted a photo, so I bought a Michelangelo book in the gift shop that included great photos of both The David and The Sistine Chapel in Rome, the other place in Italy with "No photos. No photos!" allowed. Also bought a really pretty Christmas ornament for me and for my cat sitters, Daryl and James. Then we were off again for more gelato and serious shopping.
Today's flavor: Mint chip, again at Black Bar, home of the free wi-fi and great AC. It tasted too much like ice cream though to be gelato, IMHO.
Serious shopping meant buying the most expensive leather jacket I've ever owned. I felt really good about the purchase at the time because we talked the guy down 70 euros, and he even shortened the sleeves for me in 20 minutes while we waited. But upon returning home and seeing the total in US dollars + the foreign transaction fee on my Visa, I am only comforted by the fact that it is the softest leather I've ever felt and it's a very classic button down style I will wear until it falls apart (which better not be for many, many, many years).
Our last night in Florence was spent also eating American food (Subway subs) because after buying that jacket I was now really poor, and we needed to eat in to finish off the bottle of wine we had purchased earlier at the supermarket. Plus we were tired and needed to rest up for Day 8 in Italia, which meant me driving a rental car out to the Tuscan Hills. Oy vey.
Stay tuned....
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