We get up early in Rome and meet for breakfast again and check out of the hotel. We are headed to Florence today! I cannot wait. It’s raining outside though, but we’ll push through. A rainy day on vacation in Italy has to be better than a day of working on a sunny day in Djibouti! And it certainly was! The drive was nice – a lot of countryside to see. Italy is just beautiful: rolling hills, vineyards, and other vegetation growing. And Fall colors! Very nice. It takes us a few hours to get to Florence from Rome. We make a pit stop at a local Italian Truck Stop called an Autogrill. Your one stop shop – just like back home. We grab snacks and drinks and are back on our way! I kick off the morning by popping open one of the small individual sized bottles of Champagne! 1030 in the morning and enjoying the bubbly! Awesome! And trust me, I am not alone!
We make it outside of Florence and stop for our lunch – another fantastic authentic Italian lunch. Wow – how will I ever be able to eat lunch again without wine? We hop back on the bus and head into Florence. We have to stop to pick up a bus pass for the city – buses are not allowed in the city without this pass. The streets are lined with cars and people walking around. There are lots of scooters as well in Florence, but it is chillier here. So many of them have blankets across their laps while riding along to stay warm. But like Rome, you need these dinkie vehicles/scooters to be able to park anywhere. No wonder we needed a pass to just bring the bus into the city!
The sun is half peeking through the clouds now. So we are able to see a lot of Florence just by driving along through it. It’s very quaint. I like it immediately better than Rome. Just seems so much more my speed than the ancient ruins and statues all over Rome. I am already mentally planning a trip back here so I can see more of Florence and enjoy it too. One day just won’t be enough; I am convinced right from the get go!
We arrive at Hotel Ambasciatori, of B&H Hotels, and are able to check into our rooms. We quickly put our stuff into our rooms, since we are running late and Juliana, our Florence tour guide, is already at the hotel waiting for us. Our hotel is right across the street from the Alamanni Stazione – train station. Nice and convenient – but we are taking a walking tour. So no train ride for us!
I can’t tell you everything we saw – since we were late and it was already starting to get dark outside, Juliana was on a mission and was quick to get around. She talked as fast as she walked. So it was a whirlwind and I am not sure I absorbed much of it. But that’s okay – what a beautiful city! I was intrigued to see that in both Rome and Florence the Ambulances are Mercedes. Maybe we should look into that back home when our Fords keep having issues! J Can you imagine?? That would be something – Ashburn Ambulances are Mercedes!
There were lots of shops to pop into, but as we walked past most of them, I tried to keep mental notes about where I would one day like to return. We’ll see if I can figure it out in the future. I am sure I wouldn’t be upset going anywhere in this city. We finally make it to the Piazza Di San Giovanni. I assume it must be famous! It’s a really cool and open plaza, with of course very interesting architecture. In close-by Piazza Di Duomo we find a gorgeous church – Opera De Santa Maria Del Fiore Catterdale – it’s the Basilica of Florence. Just beautiful. Very much like the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, just a bit smaller. However, it has the largest brick dome ever constructed! Inside the dome you can see a nice depiction of the Devil above your head and at the feet of Jesus. Just another example of fine Italian art.
Once we exit the Basilica we find ourselves going from Piazza to Piazza just looking at all the wonder of Florence. Including Piazza S. Elizabetta (for my niece Elizabeth) and Piazza San Michelle (for my sister Michelle). Sorry – didn’t see any other names I can relate to. Along the way we pass a very cool fruit and vegetable stand in the alley we walk down. It smells so nice and looks even better – so fresh! And so cool.
Next we stop in Piazza della Signoria where the David statue used to stand and there is now a “Fake David” in its place. The Piazza here is the focal point of the origin and of the history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political hub of the city. The colossal statue portraying David was a symbol of Florentine freedom. But the original had to be moved when many years ago some drunken man decided to climb up the David and broke one of his fingers. So David was moved to the Accademia Gallery museum in Florence in 1873.
Also in Piazza della Signoria there are statues of Hercules about to kill someone and the fountain of Neptune. This is a very popular tourist spot in Florence. There is also an open air museum of sorts in which a number of statues stand. We didn’t have time to look them all over. And if I heard Juliana correct, one of these buildings in this plaza is the oldest museum in the World. But I am not sure what the name of it was.
And we hit one last plaza with another beautiful church in it. It was getting quite dark at this point. I cannot remember the name of this church or plaza. But here we also see where in Nov. of 1966 there was a flood in Florence. There is a plaque over the entrance to one of the shops in this plaza that denotes how high the water levels rose to during that flood. I would guess it was around 9-10 feet. That must have been a site to see that much water in Florence.
From there we head to the Leather School of Florence. This place is incredible. The leather goods are impeccable! And the leather smells very nice. Many of the others find items to purchase – leather jackets and bags. Very nice stuff. On the walls we see photos of famous people who have visited this leather school. Nice break from the tour.
After that we head out to find the ultimate Florentine Steak for dinner! Oscar knows just such a place and we are off! We say Good-bye to Juliana and thank her for the tour. It is raining again and we find we have to snuggle and share umbrellas. Of course out of the woodwork, everywhere we turn, there is another person selling umbrellas. So we could have bought new ones, but it was more fun to share (right guys…wink wink?). We finally make it to Trattoria Antico Fattore for dinner. OMG – what a meal! The BEST yet – and trust me we have had some awesome food! The Florentine Steak is unlike any I have had before. It is cooked nice and rare and is just a huge piece of steak. Check out the photos on Facebook to see what I mean.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=246537&id=708719481&l=bf4cea48cb
The wine, the steak, the mushrooms and onions. Just incredible. And the steaks were served on a hot plate of sorts that for those who like their steaks cooked a little more well done, they could continue to cook their pieces. Divine! Just simply amazing! We had 2 enormous steaks to serve all of us that night! And unlike anything we can ever get at the Galley! My mouth is watering again. And as you may have noticed, I actually wrote down the name of this restaurant – I plan to eat there again! Yum!
After dinner we split up again. Some head back to the hotel for the night via cab, while the rest of us make our way back walking the streets of Florence. We come across this plaza where there stands a lone pig statue to one side. Not sure what this is all about, but someone else nearby (who seemed to know what they were talking about) explains to us that if you put a coin in the pigs mouth and it drops into the grate below, you get your wish! My coin did not drop in the grate…so I guess my wish will not come true. Oh well. I can always blame it on the wine we drank and that we decided to just trust whatever some random people told us standing next to a big statue of a pig! Hhmmm…don’t think I am really missing out on much with that one! But we all tried it anyway.
Lastly in Florence, Alberto, Morocco, Matt and I decide to check out the nightlife. We head for a place called Slowly Café. It was a nice enough place. Loud music, plenty to drink, but very few people to start off with. More people poured in as the night got later. We had a lot of fun there! I tried some different Italian beers and the guys had various beverages. We also danced a bit and hung out with 2 nice ladies from Spain. Alberto likes to hang with the ladies. All in all, a super fantastic day/night in Florence. Really loved it there.
Next up…we head to Pisa for the Leaning Tower!
Ciao!
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