Italy: Day 6, Part 2

 So far, Florence was my favorite city. It had lots of history, beauty, and steps. I loved it. For our last night in Florence, we wanted to make it special. After the Uffizi, we took a stroll down the Ponte Vecchio which is a closed-in bridge over the Arno River which is right behind the Uffizi. As the Uffizi used to be the Medici family's private museum, you better believe that it had a prime location on the river.

Ponte Vecchio is another example of Italians using all the space they could. The bridge is actually lined with jewelry shops with about 50 feet in the middle of unobstructed views of the river. Originally, the shops on the bridge were butchers. I'm glad that I didn't have to experience the meat markets in my quest for scenery.  The bridge is also known as the Golden Bridge because of those jewelry shops. Indeed, there was a lot of gold in those windows.

Along the Arno River, outside the Uffizi

The view from PV.

 The water ain't pretty, but look at that view. As you can tell, Matt is a pro at taking pictures of us. We had very few non-self portraits.  Side note: I have learned to use the timer on my camera since we have come back from Italy, but I don't think I would have used it much on the trip. I have a very enviable camera. It's black and shiny. It could have been stolen.

We did some window shopping and just enjoyed being in Florence. We headed back to our hotel to clean up for dinner and stopped at a wine shop just a few doors down from our hotel. We picked up a bottle of wine and had the hotel clerk uncork it for us. It's Italy, everyone drinks wine. All the time. After all, it's about the same price as water and in some cases, cheaper.

For dinner, we went to Ristorante Paoli. Their menu had some English, but not a lot. Luckily, our waitstaff was patient and spoke English fairly well. (J, I think you'll like this meal better.)

For starters, we split an artichoke salad. It was COVERED in parm reg. And delicious. I ate most of it. That's my pudgy hand in the picture.

Then we split an amazing gnocchi dish. It was like gnocci in a cream sauce. You know how much I like cream sauces.

 And then Matt ordered meat. Because he's a man. In fact, he ordered a baby deer. Veal. He thought it was delish. I don't care for veal, but it wasn't bad. The little slice of grapefruit and the peas were my favorite part. Oh how I miss produce.

 After dinner, it was still relatively early, so we went strolling again. Florence is really romantic. Matt wanted to go back to the Vecchio so we did. The jewelry shops were all closed. They don't just take the jewelry into the vault at night, the whole shop becomes a vault. Check out that security system. No iron bars and security cameras for the jewelry shops in Florence.

   

 And then, the bridge view. It's the same viewpoint as the above picture. You can't see the murky water. It's it romantic? I kept asking Matt if he was going to propose. He didn't think it was funny.

After he assured me that he was done proposing, we hit the city streets. Nothing was open, but the lights were on so we got to window shop. We even got to visit the Orsanmichele church. Well, the outside of it anyway. All around the building there are huge niches with very ornate statues in them.   There are 14 statues - each donated by a different guild or group. The one below, Christ and Doubting Thomas was completed in 1483. At least, the original was completed then. We didn't see the original, it's inside the church. Now, all the outside statues are reproductions.

 Know what was open that late at night? A grocery store! It was the first one we had seen, so naturally, we went in and looked around. That was a lot of fun. I wish we had found it earlier.

Florence was magical, but at the end of the day I was tired and ready for our next adventure. And the "American" breakfast that our guide had promised us in Venice. But first, we're going to Pisa and Verona!

Next up, a little leaning and a little piece of America.