Day 11: A New Italian City - Florence!

We had to leave Rome this morning. It was actually rather sad because I want to eat pizza from that little place under our apartment every day for the rest of my life. Here’s our last view of our building. Even with no hot water for showers two mornings, I would stay there again.

But alas we caught an Uber with a very entertaining driver. He told us about a few historical areas of Rome, including the area where Julius Caesar was killed. We actually walked past it a few days ago and I snapped a photo but didn’t know what it was. He seemed to know a lot about Rome!

Isn’t that last sign the cutest? We need this in America! More love people! We took the high speed train up to Firenze which is how Italians say Florence. It was actually a really fun train ride and we even had a cute table! A quick 1.5 hours and we were done. You can even buy breakfast on the train! But we had leftover pasta for breakfast so we were good. When in Rome!

We checked into our Air BnB and and met Serafino who gave us a map of Florence and directed us to a few highlights. We only have a day here, so we had a limited itinerary. Serafino told us the place downstairs had great pizza so we checked it out. Funny thing though, few of us listened and actually ordered pizza. Shell did, and hers was amazing.

The rest of us enjoyed lunch but weren’t thrilled. Em and Papa somehow ate the entire calzone they each ordered.

Gelato. Gelato is always on the itinerary! We found a great place on our walk to the Duomo and this sure hit the spot. Everyone was happy for sure. Just because it’s winter doesn’t stop anyone from buying gelato. You know how there’s a Starbucks on every corner in SF? Well that’s how gelato is here. And oddly enough, no Starbucks.

We found the Dome which is a massive dome that is in front of a church. The cathedral wa a built in the 13th century and famous dome was added in the 15th century for Brunelleschi. Pretty amazing. It’s huge. So very tall.

Off we went to the famous statue of David. You know, the naked guy. Well guess what guys, we found another line.

Yup. This is us in line, but luckily it was getting later in the day and it moved quickly. We waited maybe an hour. It was super quick at the end. Kids were free and we adults were just $12.50. Another museum!!! Can you believe our kids let us take them to so many museums? I’m actually a little impressed by them and their willingness to take in so much history.

Pictures! Many pictures of David in all his glory... which isn’t much. We all noted that his left hand is very large and his feet are disproportionate to his body. My kids all seeemed to know that David is falling down and there’s a steel bar in his right leg to keep him from falling down. I guess he is a few hundred years old.

There are many of statues there carved by Michaelangelo but they are considered “unfinished.” I put that in quotation marks because there was an interesting plaque that explained that they aren’t really unfounded, but rather Michaelangelo left them unfinished because he wanted to portray the soul trapped in the mortal body. Pretty deep huh?

There were other artists on exhibit as well and an entire room of busts and pedestals. Super cool. So much history in one place!

After this iconic trip, we headed back through the center of town and stopped for souvenirs and dinner. Yes, we eat a lot! Good food, good wine, and an early night. Emily found a banana cream filled donut. She seemed happy.

We are tired. It’s been a long vacation already and we have a few more nights left, but the Bostrom’s and Wilson’s are leaving us tomorrow and heading to Venice. We are staying in Florence one more night then heading up to visit family from my dad's side. We'll be meeting back up in Milan in two days.

Night all. If you’re tired of reading these, I understand. I write these for me. For us. For memories. I definitely have tips for anyone traveling here though! Sure have learned a lot after this trip.