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Day 14 (6/18/11):
We woke up this morning bright and early to take full advantage of our short time in Firenze! Our hostel had a nice little breakfast table of treats available to us, which helped ease us into the morning since we were all very tired from our long days of exploration :o)
Our first stop of the day was at the San Lorenzo duomo. It was really cool to stop in! Lots of paintings and works by Michelangelo. We stopped in a corner to listen to an audio tour (I love those things!), and learned about so many details about the things inside the church. It was really interesting to hear the history of it all.
After San Lorenzo we took a brief detour through the giant marketplace while on our way towards the Duomo. We were looking forward to stopping there later during the weekend. As we continued walking we spotted this ridiculous breakfast sandwich of 2 crunchy waffles with gelato in the middle! Totally healthy :o) Of course, our sweet tooths started craving some sugar and we bought one to split between the 3 of us. It was good, but I definitely recommend getting one to share!
Once we neared the Duomo I couldn't help but just saw "wow!". It always looks so amazing to me in person - almost like it could not be a real building in such a small city center. We decided not to climb to the top for our various reasons (mine being that I had just climbed it in September), and went into the cathedral instead. It was nice to be able to take pictures inside! While inside, I lit a candle for my grandparents and other relatives that have passed away, as well as said a little prayer for all my family and friends back home :o) Outside, I stopped to admire the Baptistry doors for a few minutes, and took a couple quick pictures of them.
Then we headed to Piazza della Signoria to look at the (fake) David statue, as well as other famous statues in the square. I really like the statue of Perseus killing Medusa because of the fun fact that Cellini (the artist) put his own face on the back of Perseus's head! I just think that is so cool!
From there we took a nice stroll towards Piazzale Michelangelo to see the beautiful views of the city from higher up. We walked by the Ponte Vecchio on our way, and saw the chains of locks by the Arno River that couples put there to seal their love for each other. Our nice "stroll" became a little bit of a workout as we started hiking up the steep hill to get to the main vantage point on the hill. I can't even express how excited we were when we got to top! And WOW was it worth it!! There were really beautiful views of the city and the the surrounding hillsides.
After spending some time at the top of the hill, we walked by down to get some lunch and stopped in a cute little restaurant for some salads. On our walk back through the city center after lunch I spotted a sign for a wine tasting at a place called "Borgo Vino", and the girls and I stopped in to check it out. The man at the store was super nice and even gave us a 4th wine to try for free! We tried a Vernaccia Le San Gimignano (white), Respiro Chianti, Rosso di Montalcino, and La Doccia Chianti Classico. My favorite was the first chianti, and after the tasting we each got a glass of our favorites, a small plate of assorted cheeses, and enjoyed our time in the sun and beauty of Florence.
Later on, for dinner, we planned to go to Aqua Al 2 to try the famed blueberry steak! As we waited for our table, two young Italian gentlement brought us some aperitvo-size glasses of wine to enjoy. They didn't speak much English, so the language barrier made for some interesting conversations, but we tried our best! It turned out that the owner of the restaurant was one of the guy's uncles! When we were called to come in for our table, the owner had set a table for 5... I guess we were going to sit with our new friends! They ended up ordering a multi-course meal for us, consisting of 5 primi piatti (bowtie pasta w/ zucchini and oil, corkscrew-shaped pasta with spinach, thin penne with a thick gorgonzola cream sauce, large rigatoni with tomato/eggplan sauce, and a thick almos elbow-shaped pasa with a spicey red sauce), bottles of wine, water, our blueberry steaks (which were just incredible!!!), and platters of mixed desserts (tiramisu, thick chocolate brownie/cake, blueberry tart, and cheesecake), espresso, and an after drinner drink! Wow.... what a meal!!! I think for just about every bite I was saying "mmmmm...." :o)
After we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, the guys directed us to a club that happened to be right by our hostel - what luck! It was a pretty cool place, with an option between salsa dancing and more club-type music. We had a great time dancing for the rest of the night!
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