On our first full day in Florence we had a free morning so we went to find a nice place to eat and happened to come across and beautiful restaurant called the Menagerie. It was a restaurant, cafe, bar, flower shop and pottery store all in one. The decor of this place was so dreamy. It was rustic and modern with small hints of nature all around with different fresh flowers on every table. I got my first real, substantial salad in Italy and it was great. It was greens topped with raw chickpeas, zucchini, roasted almonds and mint oil. I paired it with an adorably steamed almond cappuccino and bread of course.
After, we met up with our tour guide and headed straight to the museums to see the statue of David.
I knew the statue was a famous piece but I didn’t really understand why until I laid eyes on it in person.
It was gigantic standing at 14 feet tall. I stood there studying and admiring it as our tour guide went into the fully detailed backstory of the work. Michelangelo was only 27 when he began working on it and it took him over 14 years to finish. He had such a personal relationship with it that he often spent nights sleeping by it.
As if that’s not enough to be amazed by, the philosophical meaning portrayed through symbolism and artistic choices make this one of my favorite pieces of art I’ve ever seen. Certain body parts were enlarged, specific elements of his muscles and veins were emphasized. Nothing was done by mistake in this work and everything had a meaning behind it.
The main message of the statue of David is that we can use our gifts to stand strong in the face of our challenges and defeat them with bravery and sacrifice.
After seeing David we went on a walking tour of Florence. While it’s very beautiful and the duomo is spectacular, I like the rich history of Rome better. Florence felt very high-end and more of a shopping attraction than a historical visit. I mean the city of Rome is practically a walk through museum.
But I went shopping none the less! Then we went to a wonderful pizza restaurant for dinner and I got the vegan specials. I got some extremely flavorful and perfectly textured tomato pizza with a delicious chewy, warm bread with oil and arugula as an appetizer. That was definitely my favorite bread in Italy so far.
Later we went dancing and I somehow ended up in VIP section overlooking the entire club. Towards the climax of the night they distributed sparklers to all of the VIP members and lit them up for us. It was a really novel sight to see. The music built up and finally released a large crescendo of flashing bright lights, a shower of white confetti, and a collective jumping dance from everyone there. It was such an energetic, lively, and surreal moment.
