Florence - Day 1

This morning we left our hotel and got a ride to the train station in Rome where we took a bullet train to Florence. The train was really cool and really fast. Getting on the right car was a bit of a challenge, but we made it to our first class compartment. Full time fancy.

At the train station in Florence, we met our local concierge. We gave our suitcases to a guy with a truck and Patrizia walked with us to our hotel. Our hotel is very modern and almost Scandinavian in appearance. We didn’t have anything planned for today so after we settled in we went out to explore the neighborhood.

We started at the Mercato Centrale. It’s been recently renovated. The first floor is market stalls and the second floor is a food court. Half of the first floor was closed today because it’s a national holiday in Italy. We ended up getting another Trapizzino, because they were SO good. Afterwards, we got a crash course in finding the bus in Florence. We took two buses to Piazzale Michaelangelo. Piazzale Michaelangelo is across the river and up a big hill so the views of the city are AMAZING. We walked further up the hill to a church that is exactly 1000 years old to check out the architecture and frescos. It had really intricately designed ceiling beams which wasn’t something we had seen yet.

We made our way down the hill and through this really cute neighborhood. We made our way to Ponte Vecchio and walked around that neighborhood briefly before crossing the river again. The neighborhood between Ponte Vecchio and our neighborhood is super trendy and touristy. It was super crowded. We walked nearly back to our hotel before I selected a restaurant nearly at random: Ginnino de San Lorenzo. It serves traditional Florentine food. It was DELICIOUS and we got the last table outside before the dinner rush.

Before we finished dinner, we began researching where we should get after dinner gelato (we already had sorbet in Piazzale Michaelangelo). Since our food tour last night we were taught how to find “real” gelato. There are 3 guidelines: not too many flavors, it can’t look whipped and fluffy, the colors need to look natural. We settled on Gelateri Ettamo. It fit all of the criteria, but it had slightly atypical flavors. Hipster gelato? I had strawberry chocolate chip with balsamic vinegar because I like all those things.  The balsamic flavor was really subtle.

Another 8 mile day, so it’s bed time.