Florence: July 6-8th

After a few hours on the train, we finally made it to Florence. The first thing we did was to stop by the Academia, where the Statue of David is. It was so much bigger than I thought it would be! It was breath taking. You enter the building, turn the corner and there at the end of the hallway is David. After walking around the Academia we headed to the duomo, the local church.

Next, gelato and a rest. (Notice a pattern?) After our little siesta we went on a Renaissance walk that took us by the duomo, Palazzao Vecchio and the Ponte Vecchio. We headed back to the hotel again to make reservations for dinner. I looked up the phrase in Italian to say: "I would like to make a reservation for 3". I said it perfectly but then didn't think what would happen after I spoke to the guy in Italian. He of course responded in Italian so I switched to Spanish which he responded in a mixture of French and English. I got off the phone laughing and told Ben and Andrew that I had just made the reservation and that it took 5 languages to do it.

We went to Trattoria Tito for dinner. You could order "Fermani" which literally means "stop me." They bring you all sorts of different appetizers until you say "fermani!" We tried different kinds of salamis, cheeses, dried tomoates, brushetta etc. At the end of the meal, Ben and Andrew ordered some limoncello. I had tried it before and I do not like it so I had not planned on having any. However, the waiter brought out a 2 liter bottle of limoncello and four glasses, the fourth being for him. We thought that was kind of weird and waited for him to come back and pour it. He came back, however, and said "Hey! Why haven't you poured it yet!" He proceeded to pour some for all of us (I couldn't say quick enough that I didn't want any) and then we all drank it together. (I only had a tiny sip and then discretely passed mine off to Ben.) A few minutes later another waiter came over and wanted to have a shot of Limoncello with Ben and Andrew. I got away with not having any this time because I said I was going to take a picture.

Our second day in Florence, we took a day trip the Tuscan hill towns. It was a beautiful drive through the country side.

On our last day we woke up early, had breakfast and then headed to the Mercato Centrale to find food for the train. We met a very friendly man who gave us samples of different kinds of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. We also talked with a guy who was selling cow stomachs. Apparently the 5 stomachs of a cow provides types of meat and if you want to try them you can conveniently get a cow stomach sandwich. Needless to say, we passed on that.

Day 1: July 6th

Day 3: July 8th