day 57 // fri march 9
Spring Break, woo! Our first Italian stop was Florence! We flew (Ryan Air again, sadly) but this time we had a little better luck. I even sat front row on the plane with lots of legroom. Wade however was not as lucky. We took off around 4:30, landed in Bergamo (a smaller town outside of Milan), took a train to Milan then switched trains to Florence. We arrived in Florence that evening around 10:00pm. At this point we had travelled by plane, bus and train which meant we were hungry! We found a place called Mr. Pizza and each had a pie. Don’t judge. That’s one of my favorite parts about Italy. You are encouraged, even expected, to eat an entire pizza by yourself. In fact I feel like it is looked down on if you don't—my kind of country.
Being Spring Break and all we decided to take it easy. We really had no “plans” for Florence besides the main attractions, a few sandwich places recommended by friends, and then 1 or 2 other internet finds.
day 58 // sat march 10
Day 1 was our 'exploring day'. We walked a total of 11 something miles. We saw the Ponte Vecchio first, then explored some of the markets. We found one of the main markets. I had a pizza flatbread with eggplant and brie. It was amazing. I ate the whole dang thing. While browsing the markets, I really wanted to buy an Italian leather jacket, but being me I wanted to research to be sure I was buying the real thing. I read so many horror stories of spending 200+ euro on an “Italian” leather jacket that was just a reproduction. Needless to say I couldn’t find one I was ready to commit to. I had a vision of what I wanted, but just couldn’t pull the trigger. Oh well, gives me a reason to go back, right?
My favorite part about Florence was the hidden beauty at every turn. You would just be walking and then boom the Duomo. There were statues galore, literally all over the city. We hiked up to one of the tallest points of the city to see a garden and view overlooking the main city but it was closed—we got a workout in, though. We had coffee (or I did) and gelato twice that day. For dinner we went to a place near our Airbnb. Speaking of, our Airbnb was the ideal location literally steps from all of the main areas and sights. It was a bit noisy a night, but totally worth it for the location. Any way, for dinner we ate at a place called Osteria Il Gatto E la Volpe or "The cat & The Fox. I had carbonara and Wade had truffle pasta. He won that one. I could bathe in truffle oil, but maybe that’s tmi. Of course after dinner we went out for gelato. After the 11 miles and all that pasta we were definitely ready for sleep.
day 59 // sun march 11
Our plan for the second day in Florence was to get up early and get in line at the Uffizi. We got there a little after 8am which was definitely a good choice. It opened at 8:30am and we were inside by 9AM. We planned well because the weather outside was less than ideal. Super rainy, but perfect for museum visiting. The Uffizi is one of the most well known art museums and it didn’t disappoint. This thing was a huge. When visiting Florence with Marissa we didn’t go into the museum, so it was new to me! Actually Marissa and I didn’t see too many museums. Just not our thing. We sat and wrote a lot. Wadde and I spent the entire morning at the museum then went to a little sandwich shop Virginia had recommended. I unfortunately ordered the wrong thing and wasn’t a huge fan. (Also since being so sick last week I’ve had semi-meat aversion) We did have these truffle fried dough balls that were killer. The weather was still unfortunate so we went back to the Airbnb for an afternoon siesta. We eventually headed back out for another round of pizza and gelato. It was still very rainy, but we found a place we could set-up shop and people watch. We found the Bronze Boar statue and Wade rubbed his nose for a return to trip to Florence. He also dropped a coin out of his mouth, but it didn't bode as well, no good luck for us!
day 60 // mon march 12
We had a 9am train to head to Rome. The sun was bright and shiny, made me sad to leave! I love Florence and would gladly go back. I feel like it is a city you can visit so many times and never get bored.
