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Published: October 16th 2010
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View from San Miniato al Monte
enjoying my first day in Florence as the rain begins to pour... Made it to Florence...about a 3 hour train ride through Pisa from Cinque Terre. Unfortunately we made a choice to skip the leaning tower and move onward to find our hotel. We also had a 2pm reservation to see the Michelangelo statue of David. We accomplished more than I had anticipated but still luckily didn't feel rushed. Our hotel is literally next to the Duomo. We found a great pizzeria and a nice place for dinner this evening. We shared eggplant parmesan, Warren had more gnocchi in tomatoe sauce, and I tried risotto with lemon, zucchini, and zucchini flowers. No room for desert and we are both exhausted.
We also had enough time to take a cab up to the San Miniato al Monte, set on a hill just outside the city. Beautiful views! We got a few snaps of a bride and groom walking the gardens. The Romanesque basilica is pretty, we stayed to here the monks sing Gregorian chants. The weather was warm but when we left if started to rain. No problem....we made it back walking to our hotel without a coat and the rain didn't melt us.
We have much to see tomorrow, possibly in
Gnocchi!!!!
our favorite pasta dish.... the rain so I need SLEEP!!! ciao friends, Warren and Tami
Day 2 update: October 17th
In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance......" Orson welles
It was a fabulous one day tour of Florence and we are ready for some sleep before grabbing a car to Tuscany. Honestly, we are exhausted but Italy is worth it. It's probably a good thing I'm driving tomorrow because my body is very sore from all the walking. After raining throughout the night...we woke up to sunny and very warm skies. We started out at the Uffizi Gallery at 9am, which took way longer to get through than I thought. It was a good way to start out.... seeing the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Botticelli, Caravaggio to name a few. We saw a sh*t load of art today - a great big overload of it!!!
Everything luckily is very close together...at least everything we had on the list. We both really enjoyed this city...mainly because we didn't get as lost as in Venice. Maybe because there are so many
landmarks. After the Uffizi, we snapped pics in the Piazza della Signoria where there are many statues and the Neptune fountain. After that we were starving so we found a market close to the Modern Gallery and the Boboli Gardens to grab snacks for a quick picnic. More art, art, art....and great views of the city from the gardens. Also took some great shots at the Ponte Vecchio Bridge where there is shop after shop of gold jewelry. We ended our tour with the Medici chapels and the Santa croce Church where all the great tuscans and florentines are buried including DaVinci and Donatello. I lit a candle and said a prayer for a friend inside the church. As we left the grounds, we were blessed with the ringing tower bells.
we found a restaurant again close to our hotel...I had wild boar with spaghetti and warren had pasta carbonara. We also shared a plate of grilled meats (rabbit, veal, pork, and chicken) - YUM! We saved room tonight for coffee and tirimisu dessert. On the way back to the hotel we found another Irish pub with sunday night NFL - great. So Warren watched american football while I
drank a guinness.
I'm about to put toothpicks in my eyes if I don't get some sleep fast. so goodnight friends! ciao!!!
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