Italy - Day 4 (Firenze)

See ya later Rome – Hello Florence :)

Day 4 started with taking a high speed “bullet” train to Florence. Diana and I rode next to each other and we made an important discovery – both of our notebooks are made by the same designer… we were pretty excited. Haha.

Anyways – back to the actual trip. We got to Florence and of course, the first stop we make is food. Bruschetta, tortellini, and gelato…. Another standard meal. For the afternoon Tony led us on a walk around Florence. Florence was my favorite city of the 3 we visited in Italy, mainly because it was small enough so everything was in walking distance and of course, it was stunning. I've come to really like public transportation because of London but when in a foreign speaking country, walking is the preferred form of transportation. Our walk began with seeing the Duomo, its Baptistry, and Giotto’s Tower. This church is also called the Church in Pyjamas because of its unique green, red, and white marble pattern. The dome for this church is considered an architectural wonder because Brunelleschi didn’t use scaffolding at all while constructing the self-supporting dome. I didn’t get a chance to climb the 463 steps to the top of the dome, perhaps I’ll put that on my to-do list for the next time I’m in Florence?

As we kept walking around Florence, Tony gave us a brief history of Florence on how it was dominated by very wealthy, competitive families. One of these family’s was the Strozzi’s, whose palace is pictured below. It pretty much looked like a huge fortress from the outside.

We also got to see Gucci headquarters.

Then we crossed the Arno River, which had a gorgeous view.

We crossed back across the river on Florence’s oldest bridge. It is a medieval style bridge, hence the shops on top of it. The shops used to be butcher shops but are now fine jewelry stores. Next we walked through the courtyard of the Uffizi Gallery, one of the world’s greatest art galleries. Uffizi means ‘office’ – this building was formerly used as offices by one of the rich families of Florence.

Finally Tony gave us some VST (valuable shopping time) at the famous San Lorenzo Market, which is known for its Italian leather goods. I was IN HEAVEN. I wanted to buy everything. Shoes. Jackets. Scarves. Gloves. Accessories. Purses. Everything. But I didn’t. I used a little bit of self control and bought myself (only) a pair of leather gloves and a jacket and then a few gifts for friends and family.

For supper Tony took the group out to an amazing supper at Zaza’s. This particular restaurant is known for its truffle sauce which had a creamy, mushroom, biscuity taste (good description, I know) or as Tony would say “a choir of angels singing” taste (a little better than my description…). So for my meal I chose the fettuccini truffle sauce pasta – yummy.

And for dessert? You guessed it – gelato. Italian food is so heavenly.