After one last run on the wall Saturday morning, Sarah and I packed everything up and rolled our suitcases to the bus station for the hour bus ride to Florence. (Note: do not put your feet up on an empty seat while using public transportation. The bus driver actually stopped the bus to yell at me for doing so. Then on the train this morning, multiple others were yelled at for putting their feet up). We arrived a little after 2 and dropped our stuff off at the apartment we rented for the weekend through Airbnb. The guy who owns the place is fluent in French and Italian, but not great with English, so we had a very interesting Italian-French-English conversation. It was kind of entertaining, but I was surprised at how when my brain tried to retrieve simple French, most of what came out was Italian! It makes me wonder how people like my high school teacher Monsieur Alston who know nine(!) languages can do it.
Anyway, Sarah and I had some time before Brad arrived so we set out exploring. We had some recommendations from Maddalena on a clothing store and gelateria so immediately hit those up. We saw the Duomo of Florence, a very impressive site...it truly amazes me that things were built with such extravagance hundreds of years ago!
Through all this, Brad was en route to Florence and had plans to arrive via a 5:55pm train. I started to get nervous because we hadn't received any confirmation from him, and I knew he had a tight layover in Zurich as well as a tight turnaround from landing in Milan to catching his train to Florence. We got to the station and watched the 5:55 train pulling in, watched dozens of people get off, and still no Brad. But then, finally, there he was, to our great relief, as we were not sure what we would have done if he hadn't arrived and still hadn't been able to get in touch.
The three of us had an enjoyable evening together, grabbing dinner and the heading to Piazzale Michaelangelo on the south side of the river for the amazing view of Florence that you see in all the pictures. Sunday morning comprised of some shopping, including Sarah finding the perfect leather handbag. Florence is known for its leather products and there was quite a lot to choose from! With another vendor from whom we bought some things, I exchanged basic pleasantries in italian and she expressed surprise that I could speak a bit of the language. I told her (in italian) about our two week class and she was shocked that I had only been learning it for two weeks. Score!
Before we brought Sarah to the train station for her 1pm train to Milano, we of course got one last bit of gelato together. Sarah pointed out that we'd become quite the gelato snobs. Despite the dozens of gelaterias around Florence, most of them did not look to be the "artiginale" authentic shops, and therefore, weren't worth it. If you want to know how to find true artiginale, ask and I will share the inside scoop (and that pun is totally on purpose).
Brad and I had no set plans for the afternoon but decided that it was a good time to eat so headed back across the river to get some pizza at GustoPizza, the recommended best pizza in Florence (thank you, Nick Webster!). It was amazing pizza and I had a fleeting moment of annoyance that we were sharing one and hadn't each gotten our own. It's good to not always be the supper-gluttonous American though! Our Gusto Pizza experience ended up dictating the rest of our afternoon, as we were placed at a table with a couple and their daughter. I played the "guess which nationality they are" game with myself upon hearing their "ciao"s and my first choice of American was right on target. Anyway, we had a great conversation with this family from Los Angeles. The daughter had studied abroad in Florence last year and as a graduation gift, her parents took her back. Gusto had been her favorite pizza place, and after taking them there she was bringing them to her favorite gelateria. Then they were heading to tour the gardens of the gigantic Palazzo Pitti, built in the 15th century and home to the royal Medeci family. We thought that sounded like a neat idea so we decided to do the same. The gardens were massive and included amazing views of Florence. Adjacent to the gardens, but requiring a separate ticket so we didn't go in, was the fort at which Kim and Kanye got married at, if you care to know (which I hope you don't).
After the gardens we hit up the highly recommended gelateria, which had multiple awards hanging on its door and was AMAZING, and then we had a bit of downtime back at the apartment before heading to dinner, at another recommended place (by a Canadian duo Sarah and I met on the train a few weeks earlier), La Cipolla Rossa (The Red Onion). It was a bit if a splurge, as it was a little pricey, but what a delicious meal! For the first course, we split some homemade pasta with an amazing pesto-like sauce and bits of almonds, cherry tomatoes, and capelli - capers. I don't think I've mentioned the Italian capers yet in this blog. I am a big fan of capers back home, especially in my mother's chicken piccata, but only knew of the little pea-sized capers. All of the capers I have seen so far in this trip have been as big as marbles! Not sure why there is such a difference, but they're quite good. And for the second course, we split the 500 gram portion of T-bone steak (that equates to 17.636 ounces, if you do the math, but it does include the hefty bone). It definitely ranks up there as one of the best hunks of "mucca" that I've had.
Eating it though, I got a flashback to another recent steak I had, with my dad at Smokey Bones on my last night before leaving for this trip. I cannot believe that was less than three weeks ago, as I have experienced so much since then. And my adventure is only halfway through! I am thrilled and grateful to be able to do all this, but of course do miss everyone back home. Love you all!!
And since I know she is a reader if this blog, happy birthday, Kara!!
Latest SoG count: 78
Sorry to end the FP count, but it got a bit overwhelming. Especially once we got to Florence. I seriously think I saw more FPs than children. Sarah and I decided next time we'll do something more realistic, like counting glasses of wine consumed. Which would probably closely rival SoG...
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