Rest and Relaxation in Florence

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May 30
The train from Rome to Florence was pretty crowded. The trip took about 3 hours and we got to Florence before 2 pm. When we arrived to Florence we went directly to our hotel - B&B Bonsignori. The B&B was one of the highlights of our stay in Florence. It is located across the river from most of the main attractions, but still in the historic part of town (built 400 or 500 years ago). The B&B was in an apartment on the second floor. Two rooms in the apartment were turned into guest rooms with bathrooms and the other part was the owner’s apartment. When we showed up, we were greeted by Elizabetta, the owner, with her two little kids. She was really friendly, explained everything to us, answered all of our questions, and gave us a map of Florence and a list of museums and galleries with schedules. The B&B was tastefully decorated combing modern and antique features. The bathroom looked brand new. The ceiling was probably still an original wooden ceiling from 16th century. The coffee machine was my favorite kitchen appliance. It was completely automated espresso machine. All I had to do was press a button, wait a minute, and it would make a cappuccino or cafe latte for me. I want that thing in my kitchen! The only thing I would add is a window screen. Needless to say, we had a mosquito in our room and it kept bugging us at night.
After we settled in our room, we decided to do our laundry. There was a laundry room right around the block, so we filled our bag and walked over there. Elizabetta told us that there is a Healthy Food Store next to the laundry room and we found it, but it was closed on Sunday. We did some research online to find vegetarian restaurants in the city and other good places to eat. We also looked at museum schedules and realized that almost everything is closed on Monday. We decided to go for a dinner to the vegetarian restaurant, which turned out to be a really nice place. It was on the opposite side of town (20-30 minute walk), which gave us an opportunity to walk through the historic center. The vegetarian restaurant was a self-service place with a limited selection, but the food was very good and it was inexpensive. At times I order meals and I have no idea what I will get because the menu is in Italian. Sometimes it works out well and sometimes not so well. I was lucky in this instance. I got some kind of pie with veggies and cheese inside. Molly got pasta ragu. It’s kind of fun pointing at something on the menu and guessing what it could be.

May 31
Since all the galleries were closed today, we didn’t need to rush anywhere. We woke up and breakfast was ready for us. Elizabetta made a delicious chocolate cake. We also found out that she makes pottery and that she made lamps in our room. There were also three types of homemade preserves. After breakfast, we went for a walk to the Church of St. Marie Miniato located on a hill above Florence. There is a popular lookout on the hill, where people can see the entire city. After lunch, we decided to visit the Duomo (the cathedral) and walked around the streets of Florence. In the evening, we went to another restaurant, which serves vegetarian meals. It was an authentic Israeli restaurant right next to a synagogue. We even got menus written in Hebrew, which we could not read at all, but it turned out they had menus written in English too. The food was okay, but nothing special.

June 1
There are three major museums in Florence - the Uffizi gallery, the Academy, and the Pitti Palace. Our plan was to wake up early and see two of them, maybe all three. Somehow we got to the first one (the Uffizi gallery) at 9:45 and there was already a long line of people. We stood in line for two hours and thirty minutes. There was a choir waiting in the same line and they were singing songs. They sounded pretty good, but that did not make up for the two hour wait. When we finally got in, we paid 10 euros each. We were scanned, could not bring any liquids, and we had to check our bags. Molly was allowed to bring the camera, but was not allowed to take any pictures. It was really strict, more than Vatican museums for sure. The Uffizi gallery is supposedly one of the most famous collections of paintings in the world. The collection focuses mostly on Italian painters from Renaissance and middle ages, but there are some ancient statues there too. We saw one or two paintings from Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Boticelli, Filipo Lippi, Tizian, and even Rembrandt. Vast majority of paintings were religious, depicting biblical events, and very repetitive. There were about 45 rooms in the entire museum and it took us two hours to walk through and see everything. I liked that there were not as many people in the gallery as in Vatican so I was able to enjoy the paintings more. We got out of there and it was almost 2 pm, time for lunch. After one gallery visit, we decided that we have seen enough art today. We did not feel like standing in line for another two hours. The Academy has the original statue of David, but there is a copy on the main piazza in Florence, and we probably wouldn’t be able to recognize the difference anyway and it would cost another 20 euros. I think it would have been more interesting to visit the Pitti Palace, which has multiple museums, one with costumes, one with ceramics, some rooms furnished with royal antiques, and royal gardens, but we did not have enough time and energy to see it. Molly did some shopping instead. She found a nice dress in a small local store and the dress was even made in Italy. In the evening, I got a pizza from pizza place across the street that had wood fired oven. We sat down on stairs in front of a church in a plaza in our neighborhood, which was a popular hangout place for many people. There were also some performers doing a fire show. It was an excellent place to have dinner. Molly got dinner from the vegetarian restaurant on the other side of town, where we had dinner the first night. We noticed earlier that there would be live music at the plaza not too far from the restaurant, so we stopped there on the way back to see what kind of music it is. It was some hardcore heavy metal, nothing we wanted to hear, so we kept going back to our apartment.
- Filip

One thing that stood out about Florence to me were the doors and the door knockers. Most of the knockers are now welded so they can't actually be used, but they still have them there, and some of them are quite large and detailed. I can only assume that they are the doors that have been in place there for 100's of years. Also, this was some of the best vegan food I have had on the trip so far, and I even got to have dessert. I would go back to Florence for the food and the B&B Bonsignori alone.
- Molly

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Photos

Uffizi Gallery
where we waited for over 2 hours in line

Our room
at the B&B Bonsignori

Statue
Florence is full of statues

Breakfast
at the B&B Bonsignori

Il Vegetariano
The best vegetarian and vegan food in Florence

Door 4
The doors to our B&B

On Steps of the Monastery
Filip is contemplating becoming a monk

Inside the Duomo 1
The special holy water reserved for those 6' and taller

Wild Pig
People put coins in the mouth and let them drop into the fountain, then rub it's nose for good luck.

Comments

[Sarah]

Florence
I loved the knockers as well & to stay in a place that is several hundred years old.... how cool.