Firenze Day 2

After our early night the last night, Colby and I had a hard time sleeping in. Since we went to sleep around 7 or 8, Colby woke up around 3 and I woke up around 4. So we hung out in our rooms for awhile. Around 5:30-6:00am, we decided to knock on Mom and Dad's door, because Colby swore that Dad, at least, would be up. He wasn't. So we went out on walk/jog by ourselves. It was a quite a contrast to the crowded Florence streets we had encountered the day before. We got to enjoy sights like the Ponte Vecchio, Pitti Palace, Plaza della Republica, and Piazza Della Signoria without having to dodge people everywhere. It was also nice to see the city start to wake up with trash collectors and street cleaners. We made it back to the hotel around 7 and got ready for the day and had breakfast with Mom and Dad around 8:30am.

Our first stop in the morning was the Uffizi. The Uffizi is home to many famous works of art by Giotto, Botticelli, Leonardo daVinci, Raphael, Titian among other famous Renaissance artists. We walked through the museum using Rick Steve's audio guide who led us through the highlights. It was quite a collection. However, after our early morning, I was a little tired. I took a quick nap on Colby's lap while Mom and Dad walked through the museum in a little more detail. It was a perfect power nap. After the Uffizi, we went to the Bargello, which used to be a prison. It is now home to many famous sculptures.

After the museums, we had a lunch at a great little place called Trattoria Pallottino. We all had great pasta, especially Dad, who ordered fresh pasta with a pomodoro sauce, and I had some really great Gnocchi. We had some gelato at a place next door, Il Gelato.

Next we headed inside of the Duomo and the Baptistry. The Duomo was just as incredible inside as it was outside. For 1600 years the Duomo has been the center of the religious life in Florence. I have been reading The Passion of Artemisia, about Artemisia Gentileschi, the first female painter to be a member of the Academy. She crosses the Ponte Vecchio, frequently visits the Pitti Palace, and receives inspiration from the Mary Magdalen by Donatello in the Baptistry. I have loved seeing the sights while reading about them and their actual place in history.

We took a quick rest at the hotel before we headed to the Pitti Palace. The outside appeared fortress-like, but inside we were blown away by the incredible opulence of the Medici family. The resided at Palazzo Vecchio before moving into the much grander Palazzo Pitti. Mom and I compared it to Versailles in France. It was room after room full of fabulous decoration and art covering nearly every inch of the walls. It was clear how much the Medici family truly valued art. We also wanted to visit the Boboli Gardens, which weren't supposed to close until 730, however, we didn't realize that the last entrance was at 630, right when the palazzo rooms closed, so we missed it by 5 minutes. We were really disappointed

 

We had dinner in a piazza near the Santo Spiritu church. We were enjoying our dinner at a place called Borgo Antico, when a crowd chanting and cheering came walking up. Today was St John the Baptist Day so the town celebrates by playing a game - a team sport played by men, described to as a mixture between football and soccer. It has been played since medieval times. Apparently the team from the Santo Spiritu area won and they had returned to the steps of the local church to celebrate. We enjoyed watching their celebrations and capturing some of it.

We knew there would be fireworks later as well because of the holiday. However, these had been slightly delayed because of the Italy/England Eurocup soccer game. So we headed over to the gelato place we enjoyed earlier and played Phase 10 while we waited. We headed and caught some of the soccer game as well before watching the fireworks. We started watching near a bridge, but we moved to the piazza in front of Santa Croce church, where the medieval game had been played, and were able to enjoy the fireworks right next to the church on the bleachers. The Italians did a first class job on the fireworks . . it would rival most fireworks displays in the U.S.. Afterwards, we heard celebrations from the Italy/England game as Italy won the game 4-2 in overtime.

Lauren