Florence: November 13th-15th

The trip from Venice was a short two hours. We arrived in the late afternoon on Tuesday. Once we stepped out of the train station we realized that we will have a really cold month in Italy. Temperature and wind-wise, Florence was just as bad as Venice! For our first night, we stayed in and hung out with other travelers and backpackers staying at the hostel. We befriended several Canadians, a Brit, an Argentinean, and a couple of fellow Americans. One was from Seattle – Hi Dylan! The hostel provided a great environment for everyone to relax and enjoy the company of fellow travelers. The only thing that irked us was one of the flags the owners proudly had hanging up in the kitchen – the Confederate Flag! We asked them if they knew the history behind the flag and their reply was “yes, and we think the design is very cool.” Well, one of the Americans and the Brit took the flag, soaked it in water and put it in the freezer - should be a lovely surprise in a few days.

The next day, we woke up to rain! NOOOOOO! It was only the 2nd time we had rain this whole trip! The temperature was in the upper 30s! Brrrrr! We spent half of the day walking through and around the Central Market. We ended the day at the Duomo which was a spectacular structure. Inside the Duomo, we were in awe of the massive painting within the dome. For dinner, we ate pasta at a local favorite, Trattoria Guelfa. It was packed with locals and had a great ambiance. We ordered a caprese salad to start. The mozzarella was delicious and this one was served with basil. The olive oil was unique – it was green and delicious – and the real deal as Ben likes to put it. For our main course, Ben had fresh rigatoni smothered with mushroom, ham and truffle sauce. Liya had risotto with porcini mushrooms and tomatoes. Both were rich in flavor and incredibly delicious. We were really impressed with our meal, finally!

For our last day in Florence, we headed into old town Florence. Fortunately for us, the weather cleared up. We walked to the large Piazza Signoria where we saw a number of sculptures, including a marble copy of Michelangelo’s David. We had lunch at another local favorite, Trattoria Anita, a hole-in-the-wall kind of restaurant. We each had the menu of the day: Ben started with the house lasagna (amazing!) and for his second course, he had a caprese salad (the mozzarella was even better than what we had for dinner the night before); Liya started with a penne with spicy tomato and garlic sauce and for her second course, she had bistecca (flank steak pretty much, a traditional Florence plate). Ben gave two thumbs up for his plates, and Liya gave one up and one down. After lunch, we headed down to Old Bridge, a creative name for Florence’s oldest bridge. It was a great sight to see the old homes build into the side of this old bridge. After making it across we trekked up to Piazza Michelangelo where we had a great panoramic view of the city. The setting sun and light at dusk turned the great view into an amazing one. Since we were still pretty full from lunch, we stopped by the grocery store to grab some delicious bottles of Spumanti Champagne (1 euro each!) and Asiago cheese. We went back to the hostel and had a great evening hanging out and drinking with the other backpackers.

Goodbye flag in the freezer. Hello, Siena!