Friends in Firenze

July 4th-6th, 2015

We arrived at our second Italian stop, Florence around noon and of course it was already close to 100 degrees again. With the suggestions of Steven and Pedro, from Rome, we found a pizza spot for lunch before walking to the Santa Maria Novella Bascilica. Anna was reminded that it is required to have shoulders and knees covered to enter a church to show modesty, not the easiest thing in the summer to get used to. We had already booked our tickets to the Uffizzi, and walked through the red-roofed streets until we found our way there. The amount of pieces of art that they hold is astonishing! We walked around admiring all the work they had and thinking about the total amount of famous pieces we had already seen between here and Rome (and we haven’t even made it to London or Paris yet!). While all the art was beautiful, we also found humor in how many different variations of “Mother and Child” have been made and are on display. When we exited the gallery, we found the replica Statue of David. While it’s not the real thing, we figured since tickets were not available for The Academia for the past couple months and we didn’t want to wait in line to try to get some, it was practically the same. Anna was surprised at how large the statue was! While we were admiring the statue as well as the other statues and fountains around the piazza, we were suddenly surprised by a random music and dance performance in the piazza as well. It was like a flash-mob but with traditional Italian music!

We decided that we wanted to be at the Piazza Michelangelo at the top of a hill for sunset. On our way up, we found a sandwich shop and decided to grab some food to bring up with us. This was the first place we had come upon where they made the sandwiches entirely fresh right in front of us, slicing the meat, cheese, and greens. When we finally made it to the top of the hill we were greeted with hundreds of tourists who had also read this was the place to be at sunset. We found a spot anyway, where Anna could start eating the delicious sandwiches and Chuck could park himself for pictures and enjoyed an amazing sunset. The colors of Florence, below as the sunset was a sight to see-a worth the hot hike up and crowds!

On our way back to our hotel, we realized it was the 4th of July in the U.S. when we came across a bar fully decked out to celebrate it.

For our second day in Florence we decided to go to the Boboli Gardens. We spent most of the day here, walking through the winding paths to find hidden fountains, ponds, and beautiful views all around us. It’s crazy to realize that these grounds were once the backyards of the wealthy!

For dinner we headed to Osteria Del Chighiale Bianco. The meal of pretty tasty, but the one thing we both remember most was the truffle mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella with freshly shaved truffles…I don’t think anything else is worth mentioning after that. We finished the night by wandering the streets and admiring the bridges and churches all lit up (this seems to be a trend of ours).

On our last day in Florence, we were hoping to get into the Duomo, but the line was entirely too long so we admired it from outside instead. We also found a café for breakfast to enjoy our café with a great view of the Duomo, so that’s pretty much the same thing, right? We then went to the DaVinci museum, which was fun since it was a very hands on museum. We were allowed to physically see how all of ideas were supposed to work.

Goodbye Florence.

Final thoughts on Florence:

1.     Sidewalks mean nothing here. Everyone walks wherever they want, until there is a car and then you jump to the side. Or you don’t and the car maneuvers around you.

2.     We will never be able to walk as slowly and casually as an Italian can.

3.     If we never see another selfie-stick in our lives we will be pretty content.