Last Days in the Birthplace of the Renaissance

We spent the last few days exploring Florence's hidden gems before we moved on to out last destination. Thursday morning we wandered around old town and stumbled upon a fancy shmancy cafe, Caffè Gilli, that had hot chocolate, indoor seats, with chairs in the sun. Yes. Please. This cold weather and windy has been miserable so any chance to people watch while being warm, I'll take! 


Pinkies up!
After, since we were already in the Piazza della Repubblica, we rode the old carousel and then walked to the classic wooden toy shop, Bartolucci. Bartolucci focuses on the the story of Pinocchio. This story, Le Avventure di Pinocchio, was published in Florence and has been a staple in the Italian culture ever since. 


G LOVED the carousel!


Thursday evening Galleria dell' Accademia to see Michelangelo's legendary David. I must say that this astonishing 14 ft Renaissance marble sculpture is absolutely impressive. It feels so much bigger than 14 feet!


Friday we climbed a metric crapton of stairs. We hiked/ climbed stairs across the river all the way to Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato church for a fabulous view of the city center. One sweet event happened while Grayson and I were hanging out in the square waiting for Duane to finish his turn looking around the beautiful church. Grayson saw one of the Franciscan Monks in the courtyard, waved and said ciao (a new favorite word). The Monk loved this, waved back, and brought Grayson a chocolate egg for Easter! So Grayson and I ate his little treat together while sitting in the sun, admiring the landscape. 




 Duane and I then had 1/2 of a quiet lunch together while Grayson slept. The other 1/2, in case you were wondering, not so quiet. 

Then in the afternoon, we climbed the Giotto's Bell Tower next to the Duomo. Lucky for us, there was NO LINE! (Un)lucky for Duane, he had Gray on his back....all 30lbs of him, to scale the steep and narrow 400 steps to reach to top of the tower. The weather is finally starting to feel more spring like, so we had epic views of the whole city.








Saturday morning we wandered the alleys in search of a good Cappuccino and gluten free pastry. 


Keeping our promise from yesterday, we visited the carousel again.

And we ran around chasing the birds in Piazza della Signoria.


For our last dinner here, we met up with my Uncle Harald and his girlfriend Martina for dinner as they also happened to be in the city for holiday!


Next stop, ROME!!!!
Location: Florence, Metropolitan City of Florence, Italy

Comments

  1. gamsoyMarch 24, 2018 at 7:45 PM

    Grayson looks so happy! Can't wait to hear all about the trip in person!

    ReplyDelete

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