Day 41

Thursday September 6

Woke up super early, not even sure what time LOL

8:00amish - ate breakfast.

8:20am - hopped on the 23 bus to the Duomo and walked to the Accademia. My hotel had made me a 9:30 reservation and I didn't want to miss it and have to wait 2 hours in case I got a little lost or something. Well when I got there around 8:40 or so, there was a whole huge long line that looked like all tour groups, and I wasn't sure where to go. So I show the guy at the door that I have a reservation and he waves me in. So I walk up and just buy my ticket, whoa. So much for 2 hour waits. The nice thing about not using my reservation is that I saved 3 euros, 10 instead of 13.

I didn't realize this museum was ALL religious stuff (my bad I guess). So most of it was, well, not really interesting. Walked around and looked, but really, yawn - reaffirms my dislike of art. OK so the David statue is impressive. Humongous and really detailed. Sat and looked at it for a few minutes, and dodged the tours to see the rest. There was a room of plaster models for a lot of statues, that was interesting. But to me the best part was an exhibit, I assume temporary, about old italian musical instruments. They had marble pianos and guitars, violins with wood carvings, things like that. So beautiful. The most impressive was a harpsichord with thousands of precious and semi-precious stones put right into the case. Wowie.

9:30amish - Spent close to an hour in the museum all-told, and made my way to the Medici Chapels, where the family is buried and with some stuff from Michelangelo. Paid the entry, 6 euros I think, and went in. Very beautiful chapel, although most of it was under restoration construction. Creepy to see these people's graves, but at least they weren't as nutty as the Hapsburgs! The chapel Michelangelo did was really beautiful - all white marble with a bunch of statues - but the best part was behind the alter, there were sketches on the wall, presumably done by Michelangelo and his assistants as they were building the room. They were faded, but you could almost go back 400 or so years and feel it. Pretty neat.

10:30amish - went through the San Lorenzo street market - mostly leather goods and pashminas, etc. Mostly kinda seedy and crappy-looking guys doing the selling. I wandered through but didn't even see anything I was remotely interested in. Made my way through that market to the Mercato Centrale - a 2-story food market. The bottom floor is mostly meats, cheeses, wine stores, and the like. The 2nd floor is the produce. Beautiful stuff and so cheap. Tomatoes for about a euro a kilogram and things like that. Bought a couple different kinds of Italian olives - some bright green Sicilian ones and some marinated green Sicilian ones and some black ones with pits that put canned ones we're used to to shame. Spent like 3 euros, not bad. Much cheaper than Vienna's market, and less scary too LOL!! This one place, the woman asks if I am looking for anything specific. I say no, so she gives me samples (oh, and she's an expat from the US who didn't seem to want people to know that) of Vin Santo (a sweet wine) and a little biscotti, and then she made me try a teeny sip of limoncello and I nearly choked. How do people DRINK that stuff. Holy crap.

11:30am - went outside and wandered. Then sat down in the cute little Piazza Mercato Centrale behind the market on a bench under a tree. Wandered a bit more and started getting hungry.

Noonish - right by the Piazza Mercato Centrale I found Trattoria Mario's - a little place I had read about. The menu is limited and posted on the wall and you sit elbow-to-elbow at communal tables on stools, and it was awesome. The waitress said that the minimum size for the bistecca fiorentina was 700-800 grams, aka way too much for me, so she offered me this smaller steak instead. Didn't really know what it was or even how much it cost so I said OK lol! It was delicious. Really rare inside and charcoal grilled, it was so tasty. Ended up being 11 euros, the water was a whopping 80 cents and cover a whopping 80 cents for a total of 12.30. Goes to show how much freaking money places make when they charge 3 euros for the same exact glass bottle of water. This place was great fun. Some tourists but plenty of Italians, and plenty of people waiting outside when I left around 1.

1:00pmish - walked a couple blocks to the church near the train station - Santa Maria Novella. Paid the 2.50 to go in and the guy tearing off the tickets tells me to put my jacket on. I had no idea why, I'm wearing a shirt with sleeves and my shoulders were covered but whatever no big deal to put on my jacket lol. The church is huge and mostly famous for 2 crucifixes - one painting and one carving. Interesting to compare them I guess. There were some pretty frescoes and the like, and I had a little Rick Steves tour to explain it, so that helped.

1:30pmish - since I was right by the station I had my pick of buses so I got on the first one that would take me to the hotel and went back.

2:00pm - chilled at the hotel for a little while and then took bus 23 to near Santa Croce. Walked a few blocks to the Synagogue. Entered at the same time as this American couple, he Jewish she not, from Michigan. They were funny and very nice and we chatted a bit. Anyway paid 5 euros and had to lock my bag in a locker and go through a high-tech rotating metal detector, including no cameras or phones or anything like that. But anyway, at 3 there was an "info session" about the synagogue, which is really beautiful and it is indeed the green dome I pointed out in my pictures the other day. The inside was all hand-painted to look like wallpaper and it is much bigger than the others I've seen. It has an organ and a church-like pulpit - the girl said that was due to 2 of the 3 architects being Christian. It's orthodox and pretty much the only one in the city, even though there are 1000 Jews she said. She also said that for normal shabbat services there are maybe 20 people there. Wowie.

3:30pmish - caught the C bus to Santa Croce as this bus was right near the Synagogue and walked around in the pedestrianized area. Found the "famous" gelato place Perche No and got a duo of "tartufo" (truffle - an interesting kind of chocolate) and "coffee mousse" - oh man. Rick Steves is right when he says gelato in this city is an art form - there was nothing like this stuff in Venice (although that little place was good and surprisingly much cheaper than in Florence, it doesn't compare). So good. Wander around and go into the Orsanmichelle church that had been closed the other day. Try to find the Church of Dante which I had heard was beautiful inside, but it appeared to be closed :( Walked around to the Mercato Nuovo and bought a cheesy David magnet (gotta get a cheesy magnet in each city!). Went back to piazza della Signoria and checked out the Loggia with some statues in it - I hadn't realized that those were actual statues (not copies or whatever) of some actual serious artists, so checked them out more closely, then walked through the Uffizi Courtyard, which is lined with statues of great Italians like Donatello, Michelangelo, some of the Medicis, and more.

Wandered the Ponte Vecchio one last time, looking at all the glittery goodies, and took my good old D bus back to the hotel for a while.

6:00pm - got back to the hotel, relaxed for a little bit before going to dinner.

6:40pm - left to get the 23 bus around the corner to the Santa Croce area again to try a pizza place that had been highly suggested on TripAdvisor by several people. Had walked by it earlier in the day and it looked good and easy to get to so I figured I'd give it a try. Waited for the bus, and waited and waited and waited. On the schedule 3 buses were supposed to have gone by. In the other direction, 3 buses DID go by, and 3 bus Ds and several others. But as I was waiting I noticed something fascinating. When there is traffic on a road that has one lane going in each direction, the scooters and even CARS will just cross the strip into the other direction's lane and pass a bunch of cars!! OMG!!! I can't believe in the half hour I was waiting there were no accidents LOL!

7:10pm - FINALLY the bus came and it was packed. And then guess what, another one was right behind it and even PASSED it at some point lol. Anyway, got off at the right stop despite the bus being so full, walked the one little block to the place and easily got a table on their huge terrace on this little piazza, Piazza S.P. Maggiore or something. Place is called I Ghibellini and they had a huge menu with tons of pizzas and pastas and all kinds of stuff, at really great prices. Had a pizza "salamino piccante" (aka pepperoni LOL) and I wasn't that big a fan of the salami but the pizza itself was fantastic. Such a thin crust and crispy and charred from the wood or coal oven, huge, great sauce and cheese. Really good. Had a 1/4 liter of prosecco and a bottle of water, ALL for 11 euros including cover and service. Can't beat that especially sitting out on a beautiful night on this terrace. Plus, something I liked a lot, not even the terrace had smoking. People left their tables and went into the square to smoke. First time I've seen that all trip pretty much. But great for me! Really nice little place. If I'd gone earlier in my trip, I probably would've gone back at least for lunch and tried something else because it all looked so good coming out!

8:45pm - back at the hotel. Had walked across the Ponte alle Grazie and finally managed to get some night pictures of the Ponte Vecchio and caught the bus 23 right across the bridge back. Now time to pack and try to get blog updated before going to Rome. Not sure what the internet situation will be like but I know my hotel doesn't have it so I will probably not update again until I get back to my parents' :( At least my train doesn't leave til almost 10am tomorrow, a little later than I thought (glad I checked it tonight lol) so I don't have to rush in the morning. Good, maybe I can sleep a little later :D