I will concede – Firenze is a way more cool word than the English plain old “Florence.” And furthermore, Florence was an unbelievably amazing city. I hadn’t anticipated anything other than love for it, given all that I knew about its history, architecture and art art art – many of my friends who had been to Italy told me it was their favorite Italy destination.
As expected, I took many photos. So, I’ll chunk it out in two or three posts perhaps. Though, some of what I shot is already in my Street Art and More Street Art (Clet Abraham art) posts. So pop over to those as well for some Firenze love 🙂
For this round, I’ll just dare you to not jump on the first plane out, with a look at my favorite highlights.
Lovely Ponte Vecchio
Bargello. 2 Lions, 15th century
Many a street view of the eclectic skyline and Duomo.
Pappardelle with wild boar.
Duomo at night, the view from our hotel tower (formerly a castle!)
“Truth for Giulio Regeni”, a PhD Italian Cambridge student murdered in Egypt.
Duomo
Sunset view, Arno River, Ponte Vecchio. vantage point
Florence mercato centrale, spaghetti with truffles for lunch
Another pretty Duomo view
Ponte Vecchio reflection, Arno river
Florence view from hotel/castle tower
Restoring the Bargello ceiling. What a cool therapeutic job to have!
Restoring the Bargello interior ceiling
Duomo view
The best tiramisu we had, next to our friend Marco’s 🙂
Duomo view
Lovely pastries
Street art
Bargello courtyard. Loved this space. Dates back to the 1200’s, and was a prison in the 18th century.
Fancy Pants Vespas
Michelangelo’s David – as much as it’s pretty much one of THE main tourist attractions – was truly just stunningly beautiful artwork. I was teary eyed upon first seeing him.
Lovely.
David. All 17 feet of him.
Beautiful bum. Seriously.
Really just amazing detail. I have zero sculpting ability, and can’t say much more than that!
Emily, Me, Manja and Marco (Shawn behind the camera). Can you tell we loved our gelato? Marco is the only one taking his time 🙂
Who’d have thought we’d get the royal treatment from two people we’d never met in person? And yet, here were Manja and Marco (now our good friends, I should add) spending a delightful day by driving us all around to some off the beaten path, and amazing, sites in Rome.
First up was the Protestant, or Non-Catholic, cemetery (“Cimitero Acattolico”)…
The “Angel of Grief” is an 1894 sculpture by William Wetmore Story which serves as the grave stone of the artist and his wife.John Keats is one of the more well-known people buried here, though his tombstone, paired with this nearby plaque, is a riddle that requires both to identify him.Very lush with trees, shrubs, flowers; tiered with eclectic nooks and crannies all around the grave sites.
The cemetery is also a cat sanctuary.
After the cemetery, Marco using his mad Rome driving skills, we headed for Gianicolo Hill, as every day at noon a cannon fires. We didn’t make it in time, so instead went to Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls. The 25 or so churches we saw were phenomenal – there are more than 900 in Rome alone!
Girls with cameras rock!Entering St Paul’s thru a gorgeous, massive marble columned walkway.The Basilica, built around the 4th century AD (finished ~1800)Small font – most baptismal fonts we saw were large and elaborate.Beautiful art and architecture.Basilica selfies 😉
I almost forgot – the most important highlight of the day (and every day): FOOD!
We ate at a yummy Sicilian restaurant (serious dining here, can’t you tell), Marco’s work lunch digs!And conveniently, where we ate lunch was a pasticceria too (pastry shop!)Macchiato. I broke the golden rule of having milk in my coffee in the afternoon. It’s all about digestion in Italy (espresso/alcohol after a meal) Aside from a cappuccino or the like at breakfast, it’s espresso or bust after that! Also, there is a very clear reason why Starbucks doesn’t exist in Italy. I’ll speak more about Italian coffee in a future post, as it clearly deserves its own accolades!Granita for Emily and me – Shawn – fancy iced coffee I think!Chillin’ with the best world travelers one could find.We ate gelato. Oh, did we eat gelato. But walking 7-10 miles a day warranted it!We finished a long and awesome day with pizza. It was delish!
Fetching the World 