Italy trip: Florence
Wow. I can't believe I never finished blogging the Italy trip. Well, here's a quick highlight of Florence with all the sights and food we loved the most in the city we enjoyed the greatest of our whole trip (dare I say, all international travel??).
We loved Florence the best because it was small enough to be able to walk everywhere really easily, but chalk full of sites so that time really flew and we were never bored. Also, we loved the prices and the food. yum yum
- Hotel: Grand Hotel Minerva, in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella
- super close to the Florence SMN train station as well as one of the churches and totally walkable to all the Florence sights
- Sights
- Sculptures in the Loggia (Piazza della Signora)
- a favorite place of ours that's also free (yay!) but beware! no eating inside! There are guards who actually enforce this. We returned several times.
- We particularly liked the statue of Perseus and both of Gimbologna's pieces here because of how life-like and detailed they are.
- Baptistery doors are an impressive artwork employing perspective. It was fun figuring out what Biblical story was depicted in each of the pictures.
- Bargello museum (sculptures)
- We especially liked the fountain (broken into pieces in the courtyard) as well as all the Gimbologna stuff).
- Galileo museum (science -- my husband really liked it, it was ok for me)
- Uffizzi (the most famous art museum in Florence and possibly Italy)
- better appreciated with Rick Steve's audio tour
- The Ponte Vecchio's super romantic at night...but really fun to window shop the jewelry stores during the day too
- Street performers abounded at night after the stores closed so it was fun to stroll around with a gelato in the evenings
- We enjoyed listening to a classical guitarist, an American folk singer, and watching a mute whistle clown perform on various occasions.
- Other Sights:
- Il Duomo (church & bell tower)
- saw Duff Beer for sale!
- Leonardo da Vinci Museum - tiny little place with some interesting creations from da Vinci's notebooks, but not very impressive.
- Oltro Arno - the other side of the river was nice to walk through
- It would've been interested in visiting Salvatore Ferrigamo's shoe museum, but not for $$...
- Included in our Costco travel package was a half-day private trip to San Gimiagno and Siena which we found to be completely no worth it because it gave very little time in either town and was totally not enough for Siena (roughly 45 mins which was only enough time to glimpse Il Campo and quickly run through the Duomo)
- Favorite Foods
- Florentine tripe sandwich and porchetta sandwich from a cart called L'Antico Trippaio [off of the main street Via Calzaiuoli]
- Trattoria "da Giorgio" serves common folk's food and a 3-course meal for cheap [just southwest of S. Maria Novella]. We particularly liked the ribollita (a bread soup) and barchetta.
- Grom gelato [off of main street Via Calzaiuoli, close to Duomo]
- Sostanza's artichoke pie and Florentine steak (yum yum rare!!) [just southwest of S. Maria Novella]
- Brunello wine (got a glass at a sandwich place called I Fratellini) [off of main street Via Calzaiuoli]
- Trattoria Za-Za's gorgonzola gnocchi, wild board ragu paperdelle and porcini/live pate over crispy polenta [located near Mercato Centrale]
- Trattoria Mario's - orata (sea bream fillet), pork chop and chick peas [located near Mercato Centrale] - super popular, only open for lunch
