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Published: December 3rd 2013
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After an hour of navigating the narrow, bustling roads of florence our driver dropped us off right outside the Santa Monica hostel where we were to spend our next few days.
After checking in and meeting our roommates (at that point only an american couple present in our 18 bed dorm!) we went out to explore the local surroundings. Walking past a very popular restaurant on the corner of the Santo Spirito square, we checked for availability but it was fully booked for the night - so we made a note to return during our time here. Not much later we found a cheap place to eat nearby, and even better a local craft beer bar (Archea Brewery) that home brewed their own stuff! This was heaven for us so we settled down for the rest of the night, trying out the different beers on tap and even joined the locals watching a bit of the Siena v Milan football game before hitting bed.
Up and at it the next morning we grabbed breakfast rolls to go and checked out the Florence Duomo, which is one of the most interesting churches to date from the outside but nothing we
hadn't seen before inside. This was followed by a quick hike up the 414 step belltower to get our bearings, sight a Lindt shop, and descend to "replenish our energy" with their tasty hot chocolate (read: liquid chocolate) drink. We did a bit more exploring and came across some street markets with all sorts for sale, including a lot of leather goods. One particular jacket caught Kim's attention, but was fairly pricy and so the haggling began. Deciding to sit on it for the night (much to the storekeeper's dismay) we grabbed some lunch, enjoyed the wine a bit too much and missed our walking tour, so decided to visit the local Museo Nazionale del Bargello - which we wandered straight into but found afterwards it was actually paid and we just went the wrong way - oops 😊. We finished our day by checking out some more plaza's, the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge (these days riddled with jewellery shops) and having dinner at the popular restaurant from last night (which unfortunately had pretty bad service, but the best gnocci ever). Of course no day on our trip would be complete without a bar visit so we went back to
the brew pub from last night and sampled some more of their wares.
The next day we were set on a mission to see Michelangelo's David, so breakfast out of the way we made a beeline to the Galleria d'Accademia only to find a queue right around the building. We joined a seperate line to buy tickets first, and found we had to book our visit 24hours in advance, and even nominate a 30min timeslot which we could enter! Seeing no other way to gain entry we scheduled our visit, marvelled at the Uffizi gallery for a bit, then decided to visit Pisa instead - such a hard life. An hour train out and we are standing at the bottom of the leaning tower, surrounded by asian tourists and sunglasses salesmen. Rather than join them up the tower itself, we instead just wandered the surrounding fields, picked a spot and lay down to relax in the warm sun and green fields - an alternative way to enjoy the view for once. A few beers and obligatory tower photos later we jumped back on the train to Florence, just in time to change out of our singlets and head out
to an opera held in the church we bought tickets to earlier on. It was an unique experience with some amazing singing, enhanced by the acoustics in this intimate setting. All finished off by a lovely dinner at a nearby restaurant, and would you guess, a final visit to our favourite Archea Brewery with our hostel roommates!
Deciding we had played hardball long enough, we started our last day in Florence with a visit to the leathermarkets, and after half an hour of searching managed to locate the same stall where Kim haggled her jacket down as far as was reasonable and settled on a price - success! We then made it in time to visit the Galleria d'Accademia which was well worth the wait - after seeing so many busts and sculptures you really appreciate the perfection that is David's statue - easily half an hour to just admire it from all angles.
Feeling like we had given Florence a good go we zig zagged our way back to the hostel, picked up our bags from storage and caught the next train to Lucca - just one more night until the Cinque Terre!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Fantastic photo
We loved Florence, our climb to the top. You've captured a great view.