The first thing we did when we arrived at the train station in Florence was to store our luggage and buy a book on what to do in Florence. We were not for sure if we would go straight to Rome from Venice or stop in Florence, so we hadn’t done much reading up on the city. Florence was full of history and art. We first visited 2 of the main Cathedral’s. First we saw the Santa Maria del Fiore. The Cathedral is one of the largest churches in the world including its main feature, the massive dome that sits atop the church. The church was quite impressive along with the dome. Across from the Cathedral was the Florence Baptistery of St. John. Elliot was interested in seeing this basilica after learning about the doors in Art class. The artistically important bronze doors, called the Gates of Paradise by Michelangelo, took about 25 years to create and depict stories from the Old Testament. These doors were quite the attraction and very intriguing. All of these ancient sights come with so much history and meaning that it is hard to grasp in one view. Below pictures of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral and the bronze doors from the basilica.
While we were in Florence we did a lot of wondering around too. We just walked and walked as we bumped into famous sights. We went to the most famous square in Florence, Piazza della Signoria. This political square held multiple statues, including the famous copy of Micelangelo’s David. The statues were all naked (or starkers as they say in London). However, everyone was taking pictures and acting like they were amazing, so we did too. We were glad we bought a travel book on Florence so we could learn about the history as we saw each sight. For lunch we grabbed some sandwiches. It was very good, but more expensive than Venice. The bridge, Ponte Vecchio (meaning old bridge) going across the Arno River in Florence was my favorite. The bridge is the only surviving bridge from Florence’s medieval days and still lined with shops across the bridge. From the side it just looked like homes or buildings in a row along the bridge. They were all stucco, painted in colors of yellow, orange, and terracotta. It was wonderful. Below pictures of the Ponte Vecchio and the David statue.
We continued our walk across the Arno River and found the Pitti Palace. It was massive and quite a sight to see. The Pitti Palace is an ancient, mainly Renaissance palace. Today the Palace houses a vast collection of art and serves as a gallery. Elliot decided to take the map this day and lead us around Florence, since I am usually quite controlling about that. He took us on quite the trek around the Pitti Palace. The day we were in Florence it was quite warm. I had some excellent strawberry gelato here. Even though Elliot normally isn’t a dessert fan, he enjoyed the gelato in Italy! We ended up wondering around an area outside of town and I was starting to get worried because I didn’t see any other tourists around and we didn’t know which way to go. However after about an hour of walking, Elliot led us to a busy highway which we followed back into town. We came upon this absolutely wonderful terrace overlooking Florence with the best view of the countryside and the town. We found out this was Piazzale Michelangelo, renowned for its panoramic views over Florence and the Arno Valley. There were many other tourists here admiring the view. We got some great pictures shown below.
Then we walked back into town and over the old bridge I liked so much. The majority of the shops on the bridge were gold and silver jewelry stores. Over the bridge there were many designer stores, which Florence is known for. We found an awesome street market and browsed in there for a while. Silk and leather goods were extremely popular in Florence and there were many stalls selling these items. I bought a lovely pink, silk scarf for 5 euros and a small leather bracelet for 2 euros. We found the street market to be very reasonably priced, but you had to search for good quality sometimes. Elliot was thinking about purchasing and Italian football jersey. He bargained with at a lot of stalls, but never got one. I think he just likes to bargain! I was considering buying a small leather handbag, but we couldn’t get an offer lower than 15 euro, so I passed. The vendors in Italy were not as easy to bargain with as France, bust still fun. We ordered another pizza for supper and ate it in a nice park. One would think that Elliot and I would have gotten sick of pizza, but we never did. It was just that good! Then it was time to catch our 18:30 train to Rome. We got our luggage from storage and headed to the platform when we saw that our train was delayed a half hour. Our Venice friend, Francesca, warned us about the transportation in Italy being slow and late. The train ride to Rome was only about 2 hours. Elliot must have been tired because he slept the entire way. I enjoyed the sunset and some last views of the countryside on the trip. Below are a couple more pictures of Florence!
I really enjoyed Florence. I was glad we took a little day trip there. However, I was also glad we only spent 1 day there because I felt we covered everything there was to see in a day. I guess if you were really into Art and wanted to pay money and spend a lot of time in the Museums and Galleries, it may take longer. My friends, Carissa and Allison, took a cooking class in Florence, which they greatly enjoyed too.
The best thing about traveling with Elliot instead of girls is less drama. When girls go to pick out a restaurant or activity it is a process and takes forever. It always seems like every girl wants something different. Traveling with Elliot is easy because we pretty much like to do the same things and know each other well enough to make decisions without too much hassle. We have learned to compromise and let each other do what we like too. For instance, Elliot tags along while I shop a bit and I tag along with him to look at fancy cars and relax in parks.
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