That ^ is the view from the Pont Vecchio bridge, which was supposedly built during Roman times. Very ancient! This was the first place we went yesterday on our first day in Florence. I wanted to go to the bridge to see if I could find any rowers, but didn't have any luck until later in the afternoon.
After crossing the bridge from our hotel (an awesome Inn that I would return to!) we headed over to the Uffizi Gallery to check out some of Boticelli's famous works. Having taken an Art History course has really heightened my appreciation and interest in tracking down these master pieces, but I'm not sure that Alex ever picked up on the excitement there!
We sped through the line with our pre-purchased tickets and saw Spring and the Birth of Venus and went through most of the rest of the museum before heading off for lunch.
Florence isn't touristy like Rome, but it's certainly touristy enough! The restaurants we've gone to over the last 2 days have been nice but service is incredibly slow because they are so busy. Lunch yesterday lasted for TWO hours before we got the bill! Sometimes, I think it's nice to sit, chat, and relax for that long but other times I wish that we could get through a bit quicker. Since waiters don't normally have to work for tips here (it's included), you don't get the same attention that American waiters and waitresses provide at restaurants.
After lunch (it was about 3:30PM!) we headed back to the hotel to relax for a couple hours before dinner. Normally we NEVER do that but I think the 10 days of travel has been wearing us down and we also are at the point where we'd rather save money than enter another museum that we're not completely interested in. So, relaxing for awhile was nice.
For dinner, we went to a COOKING CLASS! It was very touristy but a fun way to spend some time. The menu was PIZZA which I'm not supposed to eat - too much dough. In the end, I did try some, which I'm happy about. We learned a lot and I hope to show off my pizza skills back home!
As it turns out, pizza flour has the most flour of any type (bread, cake, pasta, etc). I thought that was very interesting! The instructor helped us to make the dough from scratch and taught us techniques to avoid lumps and to make it perfectly smooth and also to shape it.
We even got to scoop it up on this giant pizza thing!
The best part was seeing the results.
I'm really glad we did that - cooking is something that Alex and I both are really interested in and it was the perfect activity for us!
Day 2 in Florence started with the Accademia Gallery. On the way we saw more rowers! Wahoo!
The streets were mobbed because it's Easter and everyone was either going to church or doing touristy things. We finally made it to the museum alive, but by that point were so fed up that we just saw David and a musical instrument exhibit and then left.
We headed over to Neptune's Fountain and saw the David replica and of course, Neptune.
We ate lunch in this area and wandered around some more, taking in the shops and other sights. Later on we went to a gelateria recommended by PB Fingers. It was extra delicious because they put mousse on top of your gelato if you asked for it!
We decided to take a break at the hotel again before dinner. I think our weariness of travel is definitely showing at this point. I'm not sure if the past 10 days have just exhausted us or if the whole semester is finally catching up to us in regards both to energy and finances, but we're definitely slowing down a bit! We're looking forward to making it home tomorrow and then taking a break for a couple of days before jetting off for a quick weekend in Dublin and then wrapping up our travels with a visit from Alex's parents. Can't wait to see them!
No comments:
Post a Comment