Florence was my favourite city in Italy. Even though I love Rome and its 2000 year old history, Florence is an amazingly picturesque city with all its Gothic and Renaissance architecture. I found it classically Italian: gorgeous, laid back, warm and friendly.
Fantastic example of Gothic architecture: the Duomo Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore
The View from the rooftop of the Cathedral - Absolutely stunning!
We got to see this preview of Florence from the rooftop of the Duomo by joining the tour - it's worth it since you get a full history lesson of the Duomo, a brief history of the Medici family and some amazing photographs and memories from walking around. Another plus: no overcrowding of tourists! (The tour guides take you through the Cathedral and show you secret passageways and tunnels)
You also get a birds eye view of the mosaics in the Cathedral which are fantastic with lots of optical illusions:
(View from the top of the Cathedral)
And you get a closer view of the frescos!
After a great tour, we went back to our hostel to shower (and in this heat, you'll need to shower like 3 times a day if you sweat a lot) and we went out with our new Australian friends for dinner:
Trattoria Marione
Tons of cured meats hanging from the wall - it's the first time we've seen so much of it in a restaurant.
Best proschuitto and boccacini salad we've had! Amazing boccacini cheese - super fresh and soft
Pappadelle pasta with ground beef (yes it looks like meat lasagna but it isn't)
It was good. The pasta was fresh and there was a lot of ground beef. I left Trattoria Marione with a fantastic impression of Florentine food: it's so much better than what I ate at Venetian and Roman restaurants.
After dinner, we did a little wandering around Florence and SM managed to snap this stunning shot:
And of course, on our way back to the hostel, we found another gelato place (they're as popular as Starbucks franchises in major American cities). The perfect treat to end the day!
Pear and Hazelnut - Yummy pear gelato!
The next day, we hit the Galleria dell'Accademia bright and early to avoid the line-ups to see David. The statue was EPIC! It blew my expectations away - it's much taller in person (17ft) than the pictures that you see online or in books.
We did some more wandering and decided to grab lunch/dinner at:
Trattoria Za-Za
Website: http://www.trattoriazaza.it/
Very cute right?
Top: Pesto Linguine
Bottom: Spaghetti carbonara
These pasta dishes paled in comparison to Cinque Terre's pesto
Top: Gnocchi
Bottom: Osso bucco with peas
We weren't very happy with our meals - the osso bucco was more like a veal scallopini and there was barely any bone marrow (but a lot of sauce)
At least dessert turned out well:
I found the most amazing Lindt store in Florence right next to the Duomo! They probably had the greatest variety of chocolate out of all the Lindt stores that I went to in Europe (including Switzerland - surprise surprise right?). The only problem? Everything started melting immediately in the sweltering Florentine heat.
On our last morning in Florence, we did a quick morning walking tour organized through our hostel, Archi Rossi and we got to learn more history about the Medici family and the Renaissance period.
Ponte Vecchio
More Gelato! Peach and Kiwi!
The Kiwi was really light as was the peach gelato.
Loved Florence! I'd be back in a heartbeat if I got the chance - such an amazing city.
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