May 17th - Florence

Saturday, May 17th

ADVENTURES IN FLORENCE

Italy wouldn’t stand in the way of my CrossFit workouts so I went out for some running & the "Cindy" workout around 7am. Check out the website if you need more info: http://www.crossfitcleveland.com/

8am Frank & I headed out to the Duomo (huge domed cathedral in the center of Florence). It is nothing short of incredible! We walked to the top of the dome & got a great panoramic view of the city and nearby mountains. That took a good hour (maybe 2) out of our day. We highly suggest going to these major tourist attractions (also the Academic Gallery a.k.a. "Galleria dell Accademia") first thing in the morning. Both open at 8:15am.

Next on the agenda, we headed to the Piazza Santa Croce where there is a beautiful church & behind the church is The School of Leather with a gallery of their works for sale to the public. Originally the school was first run by Franciscan Monks. This is very hard to find if you are not looking specifically for it. Some tour books may reference it; this is how I found it. Many celebrities, politicians and royalty have shopped there in the past.

Following Santa Croce, Frank and I walked over one of the many bridges in Florence crossing the Arno River. On the other side we walked in to the Santo Spirito neighborhood which has a ton of great yuppie areas to partake in…coffee shops, book stores, etc. That brought us to the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge). This is the only bridge that was not destroyed by the Nazis in WWII by special order of Hitler due to his admiration for it.

Our walk then took us by the Gucci international headquarters (just so we could say we saw it) which is actually just a typical store, downstairs. Lunch followed at a restaurant in Mercato Centrale (Name is escaping me at the time of production). We also saw the Cappelle Medicee. After a short trip back to the hotel we headed back out around 6pm. We went back on the far side of the river, then discovered the Piazzale Michelangelo. This Michelangelo plaza has the most amazing and awe-inspiring vantage point of any major city that I have ever seen in my life! I am sure our pictures will not do justice to the beauty of the views from this location. Frank and I walked up the hill to the main viewing area then continued up the hill (extremely steep) to a hillside church (where a wedding was in process. Behind the church is a cemetery & wooded gardens dedicated to WW I & WW II Red Cross veterans as well as those who died in one of those wars.

Following the trip to Piazzale Michelangelo, we walked down to the Plazza San Spirito for dinner. Café Ricchi won from the available options. I had fettuccini with vegetables and a white wine sauce. Frank had the tuna steak, seasoned and covered in a sesame seed blend. Let me tell you that this was our best meal to date among our adventures since leaving Cleveland on Wednesday. Post dinner we walked down to check out Hemingway (yes like the writer/poet/etc). It is a great eclectic café in Piazza del Carmine. The have a ton of interesting beverage and reading options to choose. Following Hemingway, Frank chose to go home to sleep since he has been recovering from being sick (a cold) ever since we left. I chose to go out to Moyo...my brother, Todd, suggested it. It is an extremely popular nightclub in the Santo Croce neighborhood. Unfortunately I had to walk there (roughly 1.5 miles from the hotel) since the bus line we are on stops running after 10pm and it was already after 11pm.

At Moyo, I met a slew of different people: a girl from Sweden, a pair of girls from Norway (Eva & don’t recall her friends name) who were with 2 guys from Brazil (Anderson & Filipe who are now living in Florence) who were also with 2 girls (Amelia & Maria) from Latino decent but lived in Italy now who knew. Oh and I can’t forget a great bartender, Alberto. I then walked back to the hotel and got in just before 3am after stopping for pizza along the way.