Relaxing Italian Style

Functioning on only 4 hours of sleep, Alex and I were like zombies at breakfast. We went through the motions, but hardly spoke or touched our food. The previous day wore us both out. Alex was understandably tired. As for me, although I sporadically slept in the car on our drives to and from the coast, my cold medication made me drowsier than usual this morning. So, we decided to take it easy on our last full day in Florence. Giulio offered to take us into the town of Bagno a Ripoli, so that we could run some errands at the local pharmacy and bank. He introduced us to the local pizzeria, gelateria, and patisseria, just in case we planned to spend the day in town. Once we returned to La Limonaia, Alex and I got our second wind and decided to take advantage of the beautiful outdoor garden area directly outside of our room. We also knew that we still had 2-1/2 bottles of wine to finish before tomorrow, our last day in Florence.
Giulio and Christina have six cats and one kitten that wander the grounds of La Limonaia. While Alex switched off between playing with the cats and reading his book, I decided to blog for a while. We snacked on the Italian rosemary crackers and saffron cookies that we bought in Montalcino and San Gimignano. Of course, we cracked open the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc that we purchased the other day as well. The snacks were not substantial enough, so we jumped in the car, headed to the patisseria and bought heartier munchies for lunch. Our meal included a couple of Italian breads, cheese, pasta salad, and risotto. After we returned to La Limonaia to enjoy our lunch, we opened the Vernacchia di San Gimignano wine. Needless to say, after our Italian picnic of sorts, we were feeling very good.
Wanting to keep the momentum going, we got back in the car and drove to Florence one last time. Having mastered the route between Florence and Bagno a Ripoli, we easily found our way to the area within the city center where we wanted to park. Since we had already seen the major churches and museums during our previous trips to Florence, Alex and I didn’t feel like we had to see them all over again. However, the one attraction that we definitely agreed that we would see again was Michaelangelo’s David. I remember seeing David for the first time during my initial trip to Florence a few years back. I never really cared either way if I went to see him, but once the statue came into view as our tour group turned the corner in the Museo di Accademia, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. The entire marble sculpture is much larger in size than I ever expected it to be, the details of his body are amazingly realistic, and I think that he is truly a masterpiece. We were both excited to see Michaelangelo’s David again, and this time I made sure to illegally take pictures, so as to show any of you who haven’t had the privilege to see David in person yet. We must have stayed there for a good 20 minutes trying to eavesdrop on the English-speaking tours, so that we could be reminded of the history of its making and its artist.
Alex and I were intrigued by a three dimensional interactive video that sat right next to the statue. We clicked on the mages and compared the realistic representation of the masculinity of David’s hands and arms to Alex’s (his idea and I captured it on film). The artistic details down to David’s veins, wrinkles, and muscular definition are truly amazing, particularly due to the statue’s size and how long ago Michaelangelo finished creating it. Once we left the museum, it was still too early for dinner. We stopped off at a café so that Alex could have his last cappuccino and first canolli in Italy. There are two options in every café. After ordering either food or drinks, a customer can either choose to formally sit down and pay the additional cover charge, or stand at the counter to consume their purchase and forego the additional cover charge (almost like taking it to go, but not really). We chose the latter. Alex downed his cappuccino, scarfed down his canolli dessert, and five minutes later we were off looking for an Internet café.
I have learned that in any fairly large city anywhere in the world, Internet cafes abound. There is some type of Internet Point or Café every three or so blocks in Florence. Every one of the Internet places that we went to were always busy, sometimes completely full, with people from all over the world (international students, teachers, and travelers mostly). I have not turned on a television during the entire month that I’ve been in Europe, but I have gone online at least everyday of my trip. Technology has allowed me to stay connected with loved ones and still feel a sense of closeness to my normal, everyday life, despite being thousand of miles away from home.
We left the Internet café because dinner was calling. Out of all the restaurants in Florence, we decided to go back to the same one that we went to during our first night there. Heading towards the Ponte Vecchio, we attempted to find the restaurant from memory and were surprisingly successful. Our route took us through Piazza della Signoria, where a replicated statue of David sits. Unfortunately, the pictures of the outdoor square did not come out well, as it was already dark out. For tonight’s dinner, we changed only the pasta dish and chose the spaghetti with lobster sauce. From the caprese salad to the fritto misto mare, we were once again in culinary heaven. On the twenty-minute walk back, we felt like we were burning some of the many calories that we feel we have gained during our stay in Italia. Our day was exactly what we were hoping for…nice and relaxing! Once we returned to our hotel room, we took showers and finished packing a majority of our belongings in preparation for our subsequent destinations.

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