Paris, Day 1 - From McDonald's to Bouillon Chartier

Every trip has to have some sort of hiccup - lost luggage, stolen wallet, missed flights. Something. So all things considered, to say that our one hiccup was just a cancelled flight, and then a flight rebooked in another city that was then delayed and caused us to miss half a day in Paris ... while infinitely frustrating, it wasn't the end of the world. So that's what happened: our flight out of Florence on Friday, June 17, was cancelled due to a *planned* air traffic strike. We were then scheduled on a flight out of Bologna (1.5 hours away from Florence) so my uncle graciously drove us there. Upon arriving in Bologna, we soon discovered our flight was delayed along with most other flights in that airport. It was rough - too many people in too small an airport. But we made it out and landed in Paris at 9 p.m. (instead of 2:30 p.m.). By the time we made it to our hotel and back out to find food, it was about 11 and McDonald's proved to be the only thing open. Long live McDonald's in Europe!

Ok, the real day 1 in Paris started on the right foot - pastries and coffee at a corner cafe before grabbing the metro for Place de la Concorde. That's where my first trip to Paris began and my aunt swears by starting every trip to Paris in that spot.

We then strolled down Champs-Elysees, stopping at some stores, grabbing lunch at a streetside bistro and eventually making it to Arc de Triomphe. We picked up our 2-Day Museum Pass nearby and realized we could go up to the top of the arc with the pass - an unplanned destination but one of my favorites from the trip! 

After the Arc de Triomphe we ventured back to the Jardin des Tuileries to visit the Louvre. Despite the rain picking up during this stretch, the Jardin was still dreamy. We enjoyed bypassing the long entry line thanks to our Museum Pass (like the Firenze Card, it costs you extra, but the money was worth the time to us.) Since I had already visited the Louvre, we didn't have much of a plan of attack, but wandered throughout to see the highlights (hey there, Mona Lisa!).

Our energy was pretty spent at the end of our visit. Still, we mustered the energy to walk nearby to Angelina, a restaurant and pastry shop. Oh, and a crepe on the way to tie us over. At Angelina, we indulged with cups of super rich hot chocolate and two pastries. 

We took a pit stop back at the hotel to rest before dinner at Bouillon Chartier, one of the last restaurants of its kind that aims to serve good, traditional French food at a reasonable price. There was a line, a sure sign we weren't the only tourists that checked our guidebooks and Yelp ;-) The food lived up to its promise and the atmosphere was definitely unique. 

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 ;-)