A Quick Trip to Florence

How are we already in October? Well here I am to transport you back to Italy in August. We started our trip in the Amalfi Coast and took a train to the historic Roma. Now we continue our travels and head to Florence. 

We stayed at the Frame Hotel which was close to both the train station and the Duomo. But before I get into the city I want to talk about the hotel. The Frame Hotel in Florence, Italy, is famous because it occupies the same historic building where the stolen Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci was recovered in 1913 after it was taken from the Louvre Museum in Paris; the building was then known as the "Tripoli Hotel" and the thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, was found staying there when the painting was retrieved. And to honor that story the hotel is full of specially commissioned Mona Lisa paintings.

I must also add that the man working the front desk at this hotel was amazing. He made sure the room was ready earlier as M had a conference call. He gave us tips on the best leather stores etc. 

Florence is the hub of all things art. We did not plan on doing any of the galleries which meant doing Florence in just one day was very possible. 

Our first order of business was lunch. We headed to the Mercato Centrale. 

As much as I love food halls and the variety of food they have I also hate the chaos. After perusing all the vendors we settled on a burger, jalapeno tenders, mozzarella balls, tiramisu and a cannoli. 

Then we checked out all the leather vendors outside.

What is real and what is fake I can't say.. but there is a beautiful array of products. We even visited a shoe maker who takes a mold of your foot and creates for you the perfect shoe. It takes several weeks to months and they ship it to you. M bought a belt from Florence 15 years ago and it is still in excellent condition.



Now onto the absolutely stunning Duomo, formally the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower. It is one of the greatest masterpieces of Gothic art and the first Italian Renaissance and took over 140 years to complete. This Florentine cathedral is the third largest cathedral in the world, able to accommodate 30,000 worshippers. The cathedral has the largest masonry dome in the world, almost the size of half a football field across at the base, and standing over 10 stories high, it is the largest masonry structure in the world. The Pantheon was the inspiration for the cathedral.

The Domo is very centrally located, we found ourselves walking by it multiple time and every time we passed it we had to stop and look at it again. It is one of those I could stare at it all day kind of marvels.

We took a short mid day break and headed back to the hotel for M's conference call. After the call we got to down to business. 

We headed to Uffizi Gallery. I know, I know I said we weren't going to be visiting any of the galleries but Uffizi has plenty of sculptures outside the gallery, free of charge and most importantly Fake David. If you want to see real David you need to visit the Accademia Gallery, also in Florence. The Uffizi Gallery is located in Piazza Signoria.

Michelangelo's David has become one of the most recognized works of Renaissance sculpture; a symbol of strength and youthful beauty. The colossal size of the statue alone impressed Michelangelo's contemporaries. While the replica is of course a replica but to our simple eyes it was just fine. 

Perseus with the head of Medusa, something my Percy Jackson loving son got a kick out of. 

Above is the Fountain of Neptune. 

Next we stopped at Gelateria dei Negri.. their strawberry gelato was amazing. 

Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence

Finally after lots of meandering through streets and checking out more leather wears we arrived at Ponte Alle Grazie, a bridge over the Arno river. The bridge runs parallel to the more famous Ponte Vecchio and a nice place to capture a photo of the Ponte Vecchio but the sun was high and the pictures were not all that nice. 

We crossed the bridge in order to get to Piazzale Michelangelo. Piazza Michelangelo is on a hill on the south bank of the Arno River, just east of the center of Florence, and offers a stunning view of the city.

It was a hot day. The walk up to the piazza was steep and we were tired. The walk down was easier and we slowly walked along the water to the Ponte Vecchio. 

The Ponte Vecchio is Florence's oldest bridge, dating back to 1350. Ponte Vecchio was once lined with butcher shops until a Medici decree relocated goldsmiths onto the bridge. Ponte Vecchio was Florence’s only bridge to survive WWII unscathed but was damaged in a devastating flood in 1966. 

Lastly it was time for dinner. We had made reservations at Trattoria Za Za. Thank God because there was a huge line outside. This place was incredible. The walls were brightly painted and the food which I took zero pictures off was amazing. 

Florence is famous for its steak. Bistecca alla fiorentina is an Italian steak dish made of young steer or heifer that is one of the most famous dishes in Tuscan cuisine. It is loin steak on the bone cooked on a grill until rare. We love a good steak but the size of it was just overwhelming and we chose to skip it. I saw it on other peoples tables and it was massive. 

We don't drink alcohol and appreciated the variety of drinks most restaurants offered that weren't basic sodas.

There was an even longer line when we left the restaurant. Something new I did for this trip that I have never done before is make reservations for almost every restaurant we ate at. Often on other trips we would find ourselves hungry going restaurant to restaurant looking at menus, looking for tables and find ourselves so hungry we would just sit anywhere and eat anything. It didn't always end with a good meal or experience. We did find ourselves running late twice and had to move reservations but overall it worked out perfectly and I am changed by this experience.  

And so came to an end our one day in Florence. 

 

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