From Venice we took the train to Florence on May 5th. The ride was only about 2 hours since we took one of the high speed trains that goes about 180mph! Here is a picture before starting the journey...
Once we arrived in Florence we found the apartment we had booked through Home Away and it was a nice two bedroom place. This seems to be a great way to go when traveling with others cost and space wise. We really liked the nice outdoor area and that the owner left a bottle of wine for us. We enjoyed it quickly after our arrival...
Next we set out to see the city center which was about a 15-20 minute walk from where we were staying.
The sun was just beginning to go down and was shining beautifully on the main icon of the city center, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore which was completed in 1436. Now we really felt like we were in Florence!
From there we headed toward the river to see the view. To get there we passed through a square with many statues and then through a neat archway...
The Arno River...
Looking down the other direction as the sun was setting.
After the sun had gone down we found a restaurant for dinner called Ristorante Celestino that ended up being our favorite meal of the whole trip. The fresh pasta was SO good and our waiter was really friendly too!
After dinner we capped off the day with more gelato, I mean how could you resist this?!
The next morning we started out day touring the Uffizi Gallery which is one of the main museums in Florence and among the oldest and most famous art galleries in Europe. We saw famous artwork by Bernardo Buontalenti, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. There were lots of marble sculptures which was fun to see especially the unfinished ones of Michelangelo's. You could see the huge chunks of marble to begin with and how parts were chiseled away to form the human sculptures. It looked as though they were trying to jump out of the large stone, however they never fully made their way out.
Next we went to the Accademia Gallery to see the famous statue of David one of the most famous Renaissance sculptures done by Michelangelo between 1501-1504. The sculpture is to represent David from the bible shortly before he gets ready for combat with Goliath. When we entered the part of the gallery in which David stands we were all in awe as we saw the sculpture under the domed ceiling towards the far end of the corridor. He stands 17 feet high and is very impressive looking. It is unreal to think how someone could turn a huge slab of marble into something so life like. We spent a long time walking all around him and studying the "realness" in his muscles, veins, hands, feet, face, etc. We could have stayed there half the day. I had to admit he was probably one of my favorite things we've seen so far in Europe! He literally looks as though he could turn and walk away. Unfortunately we could not take pictures of the real sculpture but there is a replica outside near the Palazzo-della Signoria. Here is a picture of Kayla and David with him...
After wandering around for a bit we eventually decided we were going to cross the river and head up to the Piazzale Michelangelo where we heard you can see great views of over Florence. Kayla and David crossing the bridge...
We ended up taking a round about way and walking up some really steep hills but eventually made it. The view was certainly worth it!
As we were at the top enjoying some drinks and snacks on a outdoor terrace bar all of a sudden we saw quite a few bees that came flying up over the hill and right toward us. Before we knew it within a few seconds there were ALOT of bees! I wouldn't know because I already had my head down under the table and was about to get up and start running but David said after the fact that he saw a huge shadow up come over the hill with thousands of bees! There was a lots of buzzing too! It was so crazy and luckily only lasted about a min before they all flew off and we didn't get stung! Everyone around us was looking around like, "wow did that just happen?!" So crazy never been part of a bee swarm before!!!
Some pretty flowers on the way down...
Some pretty flowers on the way down...
That night dinner turned out to be an experience. The food we had was good but we had terrible service. For some reason the waitress didn't like us from the beginning and long story short we were rushed out saying they needed the table. She literally pulled the place mats out from under Kayla and I. Other people around were even giving us looks like, "wow lady!" This was extra unusual since in the UK and Europe the restaurant situation is the complete opposite from in the States. Normally it is all about taking your time and enjoying the experience, it is common for dinner to last a couple hours. There isn't the push like at home to flip tables and get people in and out. That being said even if you were being rushed in the States your place mat would never be ripped out from under you and pretty much being forced to stand up and go!
We were all pretty worked up about the situation and ended up going across the street to a wine bar. The bartender was really friendly and could tell something had clearly happened. We decided then was the perfect time to have some Italian lemoncello. I haven't liked it in the past but this kind and all the others we had while in Italy were delicious and I really like it now. Cheers to moving on from the crazy waitress lady!
Our bartender buddy also ended up giving us a deal on a bottle of wine that he said is considered, "the best bottle in Tuscany!" It was really really good!
The next morning we did a little more wandering around before we had to get to the train station to move onto Rome, our third and final leg of our Italy trip. We took a few more pictures of the Basilica since the green and reddish colors were so pretty with the direct sun high in the sky on it.
When we had lunch Kayla went to take a picture of the guy making her pizza, he told her to come around the other side. We thought she was just going to stand next to him for the picture but before you know it he had her helping make the pizza! Pretty neat!
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We all really liked Florence!!
Final stage of our journey, Rome is to come...
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