Florence: Days 4,5, and 6

What a city! Florence was amazing from the very beginning. After leaving our backpacks in our hostel we headed out to explore the city beginning with the Duomo. The exterior of this church is covered in pink, green, and white marble and quite the spectacle. The interior was rather empty, save for a magnificent dome (designed by Filippo Brunelleschi). From here we continued to explore the city at nighttime. I had my first roasted chestnuts and an amazing gelato (Italy’s best is found in Florence). That night we ate an amazing Italian meal. Patrick’s uncle had directed us to a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that he recommended higher than any other in all of Europe. Here we enjoyed four courses, an appetizer (I had a local type of salami), a pasta dish (tortellini in a wonderful meat sauce), the main course (a ½ kilo steak), and dessert (local dwarf strawberries with cream and sugar and a scrumptious meringue pie). At the end of the meal we had amassed a 108 € bill (that is $150 folks!) but since we had both been given Christmas money for this very purpose I was not at all regretful and the meal turned out to be one of the most amazing I have ever had.

Day 2 in was a blast as well. We were able to walk around the city some more and see it in the daylight and also climb the many stairs to the Piazzale Michelangelo and a beautiful panorama over the city of Florence. Then we made our way across town to the Academia where I saw my favorite work of art, Michelangelo’s sculptural masterpiece, David. We concluded that night with some gelato from Florence’s highest acclaimed gelateria, Vivoli’s.

Our last day in Florence was a short one. We got up early in the morning to get over the Uffizi Gallery, one of Europe’s most famous art museums. After our quick tour we headed straight for the “stazione” where we hurriedly boarded our train for ROMA! (with some Italian gusto).