After a fabulous trip to Indiana to visit my good friend Patrick and his family on Indy 500 race weekend, and a few lovely days in volleyball heaven with T-Rex at USAV Nationals, I boarded the first of 3 flights to Firenze in Columbus, OH. The first flight was an easy one to Washington Dulles, then came the middle seat on the 8 hour flight to Munich (oy!). My solace was in the fact the Michael would be there on the other side. After I landed I figured out his gate (since I knew he would be lost without me) and found a free lounge for our 7 hour layover. The Germans seem to be keen on design but not necessarily on comfort, but we made it work despite the exploding converter and many loose ends at work I had to tie up. So our last flight leg was together, from Munich to Firenze, a super quick 1:15 flight and we were there. Of course neither of us had the binder that we got with all our trip info, but we were magically greeted at the airport by a very handsome driver who took us to our Air BnB on Via delle Terme, a short walk from the Ponte Vecchio.
We drove from the airport at sunset, which was a beautiful way to enter the city. Our apartment was on the 3rd floor (but in Italy that means second floor) of a super old building. It had cool casement windows and exposed wood beams, and no perfectly aligned walls, floors, or ceilings. The windows looked out over the street, Michael said he felt like he was in Beauty and the Beast (lol)... we actually heard someone shout “chi é?” Out the window to a gentleman visitor on the street, so Italian village-y! So we showered and began the unsuccessful quest for food en route to the rest of the group’s hotel. After the second closed restaurant, we ended up at Gusta Pizza which was the Florentine version of a late night pizza spot. The pizza was phenomenal with fresh pomodori (tomatoes) and chunks of búfalo mozzarella. And of course an obligatory glass of red house wine. After forgetting my purse on the way out, and returning to it politely sitting on the counter waiting for me (how trustworthy are Italians?!) we headed to the hotel to crash the girl’s night.
We went to bed super late on Wednesday and woke up to lots of construction noise. Alex, our host said it was supposed to start at 9, but of course at 8:15 we were very much awake. I guess some construction woes are universal. We had been swarmed by mosquitos all night as well, those casement windows weren’t so poetic after we kept them open all night. But we got dressed and headed to the duomo just as it opened, hoping to get tickets to the cupola.
The line to get into the church was literally around to the back of the Church but it moved relatively quickly. Apparently people started lining up at 8am (!!). We couldn’t get tickets to the cupola but we did get tickets for 18€ to the campanile (bell tower) and baptistery, and going inside the duomo was free. Of course, I wore a tank top that day and was turned away at the entrance for having my shoulders uncovered, so I bought a Firenze scarf for 8€ right outside. I would have spent a lot more on it after waiting in that line, that’s a missed opportunity for the street vendors for sure.
The 15th Century Duomo was gorgeous, but I find it more impressive from the outside than the inside. The painted dome by Vasari is fabulous and the sheer size of the space is amazing. The campanile trip to the top was a lot of steps but so rewarding at the top. We were in the bell tower when the clock struck 12, and were able to see amazing views of the city... with so few straight lines, clay tile roofs everywhere, and an amazing view of the hills around the city. The baptistery was very simple and under renovations, but a very spiritual place. Not sure I had ever been inside before this trip.
Looking down the campanile
Santa Maria della Croce in the distance
After our Duomo visit we met up with my mom, Angel, and Nicole for a drink in the piazza and decided to walk over to Piazzale Michaelangelo, across the river. We detoured to my favorite church Santa Maria Della Croce, with its super flat looking facade and amazing wood truss roof. That’s my favorite part of the church. The 2 cloisters are also super peaceful. Galileo, Dante, and Michaelangelo are all buried there, it was cool to see the inscription on Michaelangelo’s chamber, celebrating him as a painter, sculptor, and builder. After falling asleep in the cloister, we regrouped and headed to lunch, more pizza.
After lunch of pizza with burratta, pesto, and prosciutto cotto, we started up the stairs to the piazzale, which had amazing views of the city. The shopping left much to be desired, but views were great. On the way back we stopped at the rose garden, supposed to be more off the beaten path than Boboli gardens, but everything was dead, so that was a bust. Finally heading back Angel got the spendies and bought 2 gorgeous leather jackets, both made from baby lamb (which makes them extra soft). Michael can tell you all about how lambs are skinned for leather and why he’s vegan, but the jackets were beautiful. After a little more shopping, we headed to Ponte Vecchio to watch the sunset.
A beautiful place to watch, the sunset didn’t disappoint. The international people watching was great and the weather was perfect. On the way back we ran into a couple of our tripmates Mary and Sherry, who sent us to Pratesi, a leather shop close to the duomo, with Amadeo who was sure to give us a good deal. Who knows if it was but my mom and I walked out of there with 2 new jackets and a wallet.. When in Florence.... Amadeo actually left us in the store to go get the wallet from another store... again, everyone here so honest!
We met up with Angel and Nicole for dinner at Amadeo-recommended Yellow Bar with some delicious Italian food, homemade linguine, ravioli with sage and butter, bruschetta, prosciutto e melone (if you haven’t had this appetizer, you must try it) and the best dessert I have ever had. It’s called millefoglie (a thousand leaves) and is a pastry, cream, and berry layered dessert. Oh. My. Goodness. Our waiter, Michael, is from Ethiopia and has lived in Italy for 20 years. He was so nice and gave us all limoncello at the end of our awesome dinner. His recommendation was the tiramisu but I told him he needs to bring the millefoglie into his top tier of recommendations. It was seriously epic.
So after a long day we retired back to our air bnb because Saturday morning we were headed to Portovenere! I write this from the ocean view balcony terrace of our room, as I wait for everyone to be ready for lunch!
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