Florence, Day 3 - How Much for the Hide of Leather?

Caffe Gilli. Oh, how I miss Caffe Gilli. On Thursday, our last day in Florence, we ventured away from Hotel Pendini for breakfast. We'd admired Caffe Gilli in Piazza della Repubblica from afar. Up close, it was darling. From the marble countertop bar where we sipped our cappuccinos and shamelessly ate more than our share of breakfast pastries, to the elegant workers behind the counter - the entire Caffe is a little jewel frozen in time. It's been there since 1733! Hats off to any establishment that has been around that long.

From there we walked to the Galleria dell'Accademia to pay a visit to an ancient, tall naked man ... also known as David ;-) Yet again, I was happy we purchased Firenzecards to bypass the long general line. Inside the Galleria, the Hall of the Prisoners lead the way to David. Those prisoner sculptures that protrude unfinished from stone are pretty thought-provoking. It makes you appreciate a finished sculpture that much more when you see the original material from where it came. One of Michelangelo's Pieta sculptures was at the end of the row, also not completely finished seeming, but beautiful in that way. David is breathtaking up close. I mean, it's so larger than life. How a person could fathom creating something like that, chiseling it from stone - it's beyond my understanding. 

We then headed toward San Lorenzo Market. Food, leather - what's not to love. The food component, Mercato Centrale, is a large indoor market of fresh ingredients as well as awesome food vendors on the upper level. I could have happily eaten my way through that entire market :) 

Back outside, we browsed stall after stall of beautiful leather. I landed on a cream cross-body purse, and in chatting with the stall's owner, I asked where we could find a leather hide for Jonathan to use to make items of our own. He directed us to someone he knew a few stalls down, who then walked us into his shop where he had several beautiful hides. We chatted for a bit to get a sense of the price he had in mind, if he was even willing to part with it. Jonathan eventually decided to go for the entire hide and the shop owners were friendly enough to even let him pick out some hardware free of charge. The whole interaction was one of my favorites from our time in Florence -- speaking Italian with a leatherworker and explaining and showing the leatherwork that Jonathan makes. When we left, the owner told us to make him a wallet and mail it to him ;-)

Later that afternoon our theme of leather continued as we visited the Scuola del Cuoio next to the Basilica of Santa Croce. It was neat because we got a partial tour of the leather school by the founder's granddaughter. The school was founded by a man who was approached by monks to create a school that taught orphans a trade for them to earn a living. His daughters have since taken over the school and run it today. 

In the evening, my aunt and uncle drove us to the nearby town of Lucca. We ate dinner and strolled through the quiet streets before heading back to Florence. Not before we staged a photo so I could cover up one of the Cs in Lucca for our nephew ;-)

Florence, Day 2 - 463 Steps to the Top

Our second day in Florence began with breakfast in our hotel. I kid you not, the music playing in the dining room was "Nessun Dorma" -- more commonly known as the opera aria that ends triumphantly "Vincero! Vincero!" It felt like something out of a cliche Italian film ... except it was real life and there were birds flying outside our open window.

The first stop of the day was the Uffizi Gallery where we saw beautiful altarpieces, Botticelli's Birth of Venus and La Primavera and works by Titian, Parmigianino, da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo. Seeing these works in person brought back memories of years of art history classes - I wish my knowledge of historical details had stuck with me better!

When we left the museum it was raining, but we made a bee line for All'Antico Vinaio for lunch. My cousin that works in Florence recommended we try their schiacciata, a sandwich made with thin Tuscan focaccia. Looks like other people knew about this too, as the line was out the door when we arrived. Delicious through and through -- and massive size!

With our bellies full and the rain stopped, we made our way to the Duomo. We visited the Baptistery first, again recalling my art history days of studying Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, one of the set of bronze doors for the Baptistery. Inside the Baptistery there is beautiful tile work throughout.

We then got in line for the Duomo -- the shorter line thanks to our Firenzecard! This is where we didn't know what we were actually in line for. I thought we would be entering the ground floor of the cathedral. In reality, we walked in and immediately were in route to climb the 463 steps up to the top of the dome. Whoops. We started the climb all bubbly and optimistic. That faded about 100-200 steps in... but it was a glorious view, both inside up close to the frescoes on the dome's ceiling, and then ultimately exiting at the top of the dome.

After we then came back down the 463 steps, we decided we earned gelato. That was one of my favorite flavor combos of the trip: nocciola and pistachio. It was also at that point that I realized I was far too ambitious in my planning of that day's itinerary -- I had us going to Accademia Gallery to see The David statue after that. Ha. That was a big fat no for our jelly legs. We went back to the hotel and rested for a bit before meeting up with my aunt and cousin for a tour of the Ferragamo Museum where she works. We saw the temporary exhibit "Across Art and Fashion," which combined paintings, clothing and shoes to show how fashion imitates art and vice versa.

We met up with my cousin's boyfriend and visited Ponte Vecchio and walked around the city until it was time to meet my uncle, younger cousin and their puppy, Cherie, before dinner. It was surreal to sit in Piazza della Repubblica catching up with family.

For dinner my uncle took us to Ristorante Il Latini to experience bistecca alla fiorentina, the iconic Florence steak that is only prepared rare and is only about the size of your head. This steak is not for the faint of heart! Seven of us shared three steaks, roasted potatoes and beans (Jonathan commented that it was like an Italian version of a barbecue -- all we were missing was corn on the cob :) The steak was delicious - grilled with just salt, pepper and olive oil. 

Yet again, we went to bed full, exhausted and happy.