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Published: March 2nd 2009
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This weekend is the first weekend that I am leaving leaving the Rome area without the aid of the IES program. Laura, Jordan, and I took a high speed train to Florence. We departed the Roma Termini station which is one of the biggest train-bus stations in Europe. The mix of the absolute sheer size and language barrier made it one hell of an experience. After figuring out the system 30 minutes later we departed for Firenze (Florence to us Americans) for a unforgettable weekend.
Waking up from my short nap and arriving in a much smaller and more friendly train station we arrived in Florence around 5:30. (On a side note: trains are the way to go. faster, economic friendly, and more comfortable then cars. The U.S. should definitely invest in them.) Anyway after arriving we leave the station and find ourselves right next to the Grand Majestic Hotel (Arlotta/Sahyoun families reading might find this familiar because it is the hotel that Brendon/Globus Tours has you stay in at Florence.) As soon as I saw the hotel I immediately got my bearings and remembered the city as if I was in it just the other day. Its
Food Stand
Many of these throughout any Italian town funny how I can recall things in Italy from 2 years ago but can not remember anything school related from 15 mins ago. We arrive at the hostel and check in. It it spotless, cleaner then any hotel I have ever stayed in. Courteous english speaking staff, free internet, free breakfast, and they even made reservations for dinner Sat. night.
We walked around Florence for the rest of the night. Discovering little side alleys, many gelaterias, and the number of restaurants so high it would make an engineer's head spin. We stopped at a restaurant in the main Piazza della Signora and stopped at a Gelateria for dessert. We went to bed some what early for a long day ahead of us.
Saturday we woke up and started our day off early at the Galleria dell'Accademia where I snuck a couple pictures of the famous David which was just as beautiful the second time as it was the first. You can grab a seat and look at this awesome statue and every time you look you will notice a different muscle. The perfection Michelangelo portrayed in David is unreal.
After, we walked the narrow
streets, visiting churches and museums, stopping for lunch and capacino along the way to keep us fueled throughout the day. The best church of the whole day was the famous Duomo which has a huge dome at the top. The 463 narrow stairs to the top of the Cupola (Dome) is well worth the effort. I have posted pictures from the top of the Dome as well as pictures of the Duomo which houses this Dome.
Later that afternoon we crossed the river over the famous Ponte Vecchio, which is also known as the old bridge. This covered bridge is lined with gold/silver shops and unless you reach the middle which has arches to view the river it feels like your on a normal street. We climbed the hills of Florence to reach Piazzale Michelangelo for a sunset over Florence which is hard to capture with a camera. Unlike Rome, built and rebuilt many times, Florence's architecture compliments each other in a unique fashion.
Traversing the city/river once again we arrived at the restaurant that we had reservations to called "Il Latini". As we rounded the corner we saw a line rapping around the building. This
restaurant is well known for Florence's famous dish Bistecca Floretine or Floretine steak. This is a 2" cut of a T-bone steak. Cooked 5 mins on each side and 10 mins upright on the bone, making it very rare, juicy, and almost god like. As we fought our way through the crowd we burst into the dinning room that hung meat above our heads while the lively atmosphere made you feel at home weather you understood italian or not. My meal consisted of a first course of pasta with a wild boar meat sauce which was amazing followed by the 3 of us splitting 1kg of their famous steak. Between the 3 of us we drank 2 liters of wine (roughly 3 bottles) which left us daring enough to talk to an Italian gentleman that was sitting next to us by himself. With our expert (horrible) Italian skills we asked him where he was from and had probably a 20 min. conversation. To make a long story short, he lives in Sicily and is in Florence for business. After dinner we received complimentary biscotti along with after dinner liquor followed shortly after by a glass of free sparking white wine.
Gelato
Ice cream has nothing on this And even yet after that our waiter gave Laura (us) a free bottle of house wine. I have included pictures of the dining experience.
We left the restaurant with a bottle of wine, liquor drink, and a glass of sparkling white wine in each of us along with a complimentary bottle of wine in hand. Merrily walking the lively streets of nighttime Florence we got Gelati and sat in front of the famous Duomo I mentioned earlier. Two Italians were playing music on the Duomo's steps. One with a tambourine and the other with a symbol/hammer type instrument. Before long a crowded had formed and singing and dancing insued. In the crowded of about 50 people, roughly 10 of them dancing in the middle of the circle, we were cheering them on, most people singing in Italian (not us obviously, although I did recognize a song). Before I know it 2 other IES people and myself are in the circle dancing with the Italians dancing an almost jig running around and hooking each other by the elbows spinning in circles. I probably looked really stupid but it was fun (this is the only thing I don't have pictures
David
Masterpiece of although that might be a good thing). After that, we returned to the hostel for a good night sleep that came welcoming.
Our day in Florence was an unforgettable trip that included great friends, food, and atmosphere.
P.S. tried to put the pictures in Chronological order
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Dad
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Hey Al, bring back some of that gelato!!!