It’s so hard to believe we are one week into our trip! It’s even crazier to think that we only have 5 more full days exploring Italy before the (dreaded) flight home. This morning we rolled into Florence around 11:30 AM, dropped our luggage off at the hostel, and headed off to one of the main squares in the city.
If you haven’t noticed by now, lunch is a main priority whenever we receive free time. Matteo has suggested that the Mercato Centrale (a food court) would be a great option for us since we each wanted a different meal. This food court had a wide array of options, however it was packed. I’m used to places being busy, but this was the sort of ‘packed’ that made me slightly uncomfortable.
I’ve said several times in these blogs that I was craving healthy food or a good salad. That dream came true today when a few of us spotted a vegetarian/vegan stand. There were all sorts of options ranging from veggie burgers to “mix your own” salads. I got a small salad mixed with tomatoes, carrots, corn, and olive oil. This trip has opened my eyes to the beauty of olive oil on salads. It adds a light extra flavor to the salad, which is perfect since I do not like salad dressing. I also had roasted potatoes with rosemary and olive oil as a side, another delicacy I tried last night.
Today’s daily gelato was brought to you by Mariotto. It looked like it was a mixture of a restaurant, bar, and had a gelato stand outside, so I did not scope out the rest of the place too much. I tried the cookie flavor, which tasted like a vanilla gelato with fudge-like chocolate cookies. It was a great choice. If you are looking for a gelato fix near the Duomo, try it out!
This beauty to your left is the Duomo, a gorgeous cathedral. This is a popular destination, as there is usually a 45 minute wait to tour the building or go up into the dome to get a view of Florence. Sadly, we were unable to see the inside, but I was in love with the outside view. Pictures do not do it justice.
We had another tour guide take us on a 3 hour walking tour of Florence today. The first stop was the Accademia, to see some of the works by Michelangelo. The focus was primarily on the sculptures created by Michelangelo, and we learned that he signed his work with three circles intertwined. It represents the three art forms he worked with: sculpture, painting, and architecture.
The biggest attraction in the Duomo was the statue of David. It’s hard to describe the feeling you have when you’re able to see these amazing works of life in real life. It was stunning!
I wish we would’ve been able to spend more time in the Duomo to view the other works of life but time was limited, so we hit the streets of Florence again. We received so much information in a quick period of time, so it’s hard to recount everything we saw. Although, I can tell you I scoped out many different areas that I want to return to during our free day tomorrow.
The evening ended with a group dinner at a pizzeria, Fuoco Matto. We arrived right at the opening so our food came extremely quickly. I experienced my third margharita pizza for the trip, but no complaints here. Pizza really seems to differ by city, because the Florence dough and crust was much thicker than that of Rome. Matteo told us this was the best pizza in all of Florence, and again, the man was right. I can’t describe to you how great it was, but maybe saying I ate the whole thing would suffice?
