Florence, Italy - Day 5
We had a room at the Meridiana and it was a bit farther from the good stuff in Florence so I feel like we did a lot of walking in this town. The room had three mini beds, only one power outlet that fit our converter plug and Court flooded the bathroom a little bit. After a night having dinner by myself and staying in a not so active part of town, I was ready to explore and see David.
However, do stop by the other sculptures and you'll find a cute one with a kid and a dog. It made me miss my Bevo. There's one of a naked lady in a tough position and it reminded me of my recent photo shoot with Angie Capri. And you can't miss the woman getting some lady time. Oh my!
After one long look, we wandered the rest of the museum but I was over it. And we left. What else was there to do but eat! We checked out the restaurants and I bought a little panini. We came across the Uffizi Museum and Court wanted to go. We stood in line for about 30 minutes with barely moving and I voted us NOT standing in line. It just put in a bad mood. I told her I would look into getting tickets for another day. Instead, we went to explore and went left of the Ponte Vecchio instead of right.
We saw signs of the Michelangelo Piazza and we followed that across the river, up a hill, through the city's walls, up a path. I didn't know we were hiking! We stopped at the garden and took a few pics with the view. Then we continued up the hill and found ourselves at the top. We walked around the calm plaza. Vendors offering souveniers, snacks, paninis and beer were parked. Occasionally, a tour bus of tourists will stop, let their riders stretch their legs and take some photos.
We decided to chill out at the cute restaurant called La Loggia and sit outside and take in the view of Florence. We ordered a bottle of wine, (Titolato Strozzi, Vernaccia di San Gimignano) bruschetta, a caprese salad and sandwich. Girl talk took place, lots of secrets were spilled and another bottle (a 2014 Chianti Classico) was ordered. This was one of my favorite memories in Florence.
The sun went down and I decided we should explore more and go a different route home. It was a lot of walking but we skipped down the windy road singing Disney songs, giggling and surprisingly, we weren't tired. We made it across the river again and at the intersection, a man was juggling in the crosswalk. Eventually we made it to the hotel room. I think we didn't go straight to the restaurant because we weren't quite hungry yet so I did a little research on Yelp to find a good spot to eat. That night, I wasn't eating alone!
I found this restaurant called La Giostra that had great reviews and it seemed like it wasn't too far. We were going to go to a jazz club for some live music but we needed real food first. Florence was really quiet at night and you'd assume it wasn't safe but we didn't run into any problems. We found the restaurant and was seated immediately. It was dark, with string lights on the ceiling, autographed photos of the owner with celebrities that have dined there and wine bottles lining the walls.
We were greeted with a glass of sparkling and an antipasta platter of deliciousness. I didn't even bother drinking the sparkling as we were both getting pretty sleepy. We shared a salad and I had the clam pasta while Court had the carbonara, I think. All of it was amazing but mine was pretty salty. I didn't care. It was still good. Because we were so tired, conversation was non-existent. We paid and headed home. The jazz spot was not our next destination.
I was trying to flag down a taxi to get a ride back to the hotel but we have terrible luck getting a taxi. Oh, how we love Uber. We walked and walked until we were at our door and we crashed. Stuffed and tired. A good night's sleep was in my future.
We missed the continental breakfast and walked until we found a spot, which was the Scudieri. There was space inside but we decided to sit under the covered dining area and take in the scenery. I was a big cold and tired so I had a coffee and I ordered an omelette. Service wasn't the greatest here. They'll take your order, have someone else run their food but completely not let you pay. You would think that they would want to turn the table over to gain more tips. Nope. We were seeing signs that said no cover. Apparently this is a per person cost that's added when dining there. Hmmm, no tip necessary then. That probably why they don't bust their bottoms.
While trying to find a way to pay, the couple next to us were observing our frustration and joked that we'll never get out of there. I believe they were from the Sacramento area. Normally I'm pretty chatty and like to meet people but we left as soon as we could. It didn't seem like they were a fun couple. The hubby reminded me of the acquaintance that I went to Playa Del Carmen with last year. I haven't spoke to that guy since we parted ways on the shuttle bus. I had no interest in hanging out or getting to know the likeliness of his look-a-like.
We then headed to the museum that housed Michelangelo's David. We did not have tickets ahead of time and the line to get in was around and not moving. People selling group tickets were there and said it was going to be an hour and a half or two hour wait. I did not come to Italy to wait that much time in line. The cost of the tour was 30 euros I believe. The tickets to get in was about half that. I'd pay double to not waste my time. We were hurried to meet our tour guide and group. Here we could barely hear our guide and again, we didn't speak to the folks in our group. We decided that as soon as we get in, we were going to turn our headsets in and walk around by ourselves. Once thru security and another rope, we were in. We handed over our headsets and wandered.
I am not that into art and all of the paintings were the same. Gold wooden frame, oil and very religious. I tried to give them a chance but it didn't move me. I was there for David.
From the main room you enter another long room, from afar, there he stands. Many people will be in your way but eventually he gains in size, there's room to walk around to get a 360 view of this masterpiece. To me, other pieces of artwork weren't worthy of my attention.
However, do stop by the other sculptures and you'll find a cute one with a kid and a dog. It made me miss my Bevo. There's one of a naked lady in a tough position and it reminded me of my recent photo shoot with Angie Capri. And you can't miss the woman getting some lady time. Oh my!
After one long look, we wandered the rest of the museum but I was over it. And we left. What else was there to do but eat! We checked out the restaurants and I bought a little panini. We came across the Uffizi Museum and Court wanted to go. We stood in line for about 30 minutes with barely moving and I voted us NOT standing in line. It just put in a bad mood. I told her I would look into getting tickets for another day. Instead, we went to explore and went left of the Ponte Vecchio instead of right.
We saw signs of the Michelangelo Piazza and we followed that across the river, up a hill, through the city's walls, up a path. I didn't know we were hiking! We stopped at the garden and took a few pics with the view. Then we continued up the hill and found ourselves at the top. We walked around the calm plaza. Vendors offering souveniers, snacks, paninis and beer were parked. Occasionally, a tour bus of tourists will stop, let their riders stretch their legs and take some photos.
We decided to chill out at the cute restaurant called La Loggia and sit outside and take in the view of Florence. We ordered a bottle of wine, (Titolato Strozzi, Vernaccia di San Gimignano) bruschetta, a caprese salad and sandwich. Girl talk took place, lots of secrets were spilled and another bottle (a 2014 Chianti Classico) was ordered. This was one of my favorite memories in Florence.
The sun went down and I decided we should explore more and go a different route home. It was a lot of walking but we skipped down the windy road singing Disney songs, giggling and surprisingly, we weren't tired. We made it across the river again and at the intersection, a man was juggling in the crosswalk. Eventually we made it to the hotel room. I think we didn't go straight to the restaurant because we weren't quite hungry yet so I did a little research on Yelp to find a good spot to eat. That night, I wasn't eating alone!
I found this restaurant called La Giostra that had great reviews and it seemed like it wasn't too far. We were going to go to a jazz club for some live music but we needed real food first. Florence was really quiet at night and you'd assume it wasn't safe but we didn't run into any problems. We found the restaurant and was seated immediately. It was dark, with string lights on the ceiling, autographed photos of the owner with celebrities that have dined there and wine bottles lining the walls.
We were greeted with a glass of sparkling and an antipasta platter of deliciousness. I didn't even bother drinking the sparkling as we were both getting pretty sleepy. We shared a salad and I had the clam pasta while Court had the carbonara, I think. All of it was amazing but mine was pretty salty. I didn't care. It was still good. Because we were so tired, conversation was non-existent. We paid and headed home. The jazz spot was not our next destination.
I was trying to flag down a taxi to get a ride back to the hotel but we have terrible luck getting a taxi. Oh, how we love Uber. We walked and walked until we were at our door and we crashed. Stuffed and tired. A good night's sleep was in my future.
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