Florence, Day One

I hadn't told my students that I was going to be absent, so I got a nice little kick out of landing in Rome before they even realized that I was gone. Steve was there to meet me after I went through immigration. It was kind of funny--and completely awesome--to see him standing there in a sea of Italians. He had already dealt with the rental car, so we picked it up at the garage and were on our way. We made a couple of stops along the way--one at a rest stop for some water and snacks and another at a seaside village for lunch. We must've arrived during siesta time, or something, because most restaurants were closed. We ended up grabbing rectangular slices of pizza from a little pizza stand. Interesting. I was so exhausted by this point that I was having great difficulty lifting my eyelids. Consequently, I told Steve that if he wanted to talk, talk, and if he saw something I should see, let me know. Otherwise, there was no way I could keep my eyes open. When we approached Florence, I regained control of my eyelids and noticed signs for Piazzelle di Michelangelo. My little tourist map said it was a great place to go at dusk because it had a fantastic view of the city. We figured we might as well check it out while we were in the area. The view was beautiful, and we hit it at a nice time of day--early evening. The piazzelle held the bronze version of Michelangelo's David.

View of Florence (Duomo is the big church behind us.)

If you see a good picture--assume it's Steve's. 

While we were there, we walked up the hill to an old church and took a few pictures.

Looking at our map, we figured it would be an easy, straight shot into the city to our hotel. Boy, were we wrong. At least two hours later, after circling the city and getting lost in a labyrinth of narrow one-way streets, we finally found a parking garage that we figured would be close enough to our hotel. When we gave the garage the name of our hotel, they told us there was a discount--1 Euro. Ooh, boy, they're generous with their discounts. It didn't take us long to learn that people like to take your money in Italy. We're still expecting to receive random tickets in the mail for driving down the wrong streets. Lesson learned: Don't drive in Florence if you can possibly avoid it.

We did eventually make it to our hotel and then went in search of food. We were pretty hungry at this point, as you can imagine. We decided on La Trattoria di A Matti, if memory serves. It translates to The Pizzeria of Fools. Steve ordered the penne all'arrabiatta, I ordered the margherita pizza (mozzarella, red sauce, and fresh basil), and then we split our meals. YUM! They were both so good! Afterward, we treated ourselves to super creamy gelato. The Italians really know how to pack in the gelato. They don't give you any wimpy little scoops--oh, no. They piled it on and then press it down and then ask you for your second flavor. That night, I opted for mint and dark chocolate. Steve chose a berry and dark chocolate. Heaven.

By that time, now that our bellies were full, we decided to call it a day. It had been a great one.