Wait, is Firenze the same as Florence?

Tuesday morning we woke up and popped out for a quick coffee before packing our bags and checking out (and paying our city tax, which in Venice is 2.5 euros per person per night, just for the privilege of coming and spending your money in Venice). We got the boat back to Piazza de la Roma, the people mover back to Tronchetto car park, paid our ransom for parking, and thankfully the car started and we blew that joint (which I do still love, despite its heat, expense, heavy tourist population and excess number of souvenir shops).

Duomo di Firenze - Florence's famous cathedral

Our next stop was Florence, and smack bang in the middle of Venice and Florence lies Bologna, so we thought it fitting to 'sauce' out the best spaghetti bolognese in Bologna for lunch. We did our research and found a good spot - but when we got there, it was closed. I guess we weren't altogether too surprised, from previous experiences, but then driving around the rest of the town it really did appear as though nothing was open at all!! How the poor people that are left in these towns during August survive I do not know. Anyway, we managed to kill nearly an hour driving around Bologna trying to find some sign of life, but none was to be found.

Panoramic of Florence's Arno river - so beautiful and still

After giving up on Bologna, we were literally starving, so stopped in at an ever faithful Autogrill on the side of the freeway. Hey, even a pre-made panini at one of these places is awesome if it's got buffalo mozzarella on it. I am completely obsessed with the stuff! So we got into Florence, my first time, where the temperature was a cool 38 degrees or so. We parked the car near-ish to our hotel so we could check in, and walked through the desert heat. Having looked at the forecast I was expecting worse, but it actually felt possibly cooler than Venice's 31 degrees because it was less humid. We checked in to Globus Hotel, where the staff were very kind, friendly and helpful, and parked the car nearish by. It was already late afternoon, so we literally chilled in our hotel room for an hour or so. 

Us in front of the famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio

Our little hotel was great - small room but centre of town, and we pre-paid for the room in advance (51 euros a night!!) - this included breakfast, and at 6:30pm each night, a "happy hour" with free nibbles and wine! Unbelievable! So at 6:30 we went down and had a courtesy prosecco or 2, and met some of the other hotel guests, including a couple from San Francisco. We started talking and they were pretty nice and both worked in IT (for VMWare) so were chatting computers with Ryan. I had an app on my phone which had suggested some cool bars near us, so when we left we invited them along. Not surprisingly, the 2 bars I led us to were also closed!! I cannot believe that successful businesses just shut down for a month in summer. Apart from small family-run businesses I do not know where that happens in Australia!

Ponte Vecchio arty style

We decided to forget the app and just walk around and see what was open, which was still a decent number of places, being Florence. We came across a pretty ambient (ie. dark) looking Italian place and checked out the menu. It looked great to me (and I think Ryan) but the American couple (I think his name was Rahul, and hers was Maria - but her middle name was Heidi!) didn't seem keen. So they suggested Hard Rock Cafe. And a little piece of me inside died.

It was in I think Mallorca, that I had said to Ryan - "I cannot believe Hard Rock Cafe is still in business". As most of us would know the Sydney joint went bust yonks ago. But they still seem to be in most major cities everywhere I travel, and I still see a lot of Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts. Anyway, us being the polite folk we are, I sucked it up and said "Sure". As it turned out, there weren't even any free tables there because it was already full of yanks. God bless America. 

Us swines sitting down to another lovely meal

We went to a nearby piazza to what we now know are a bunch of tourist trap restaurants, but it had a decent view, it served Italian and it wasn't the Hard Rock Cafe. Plus they offered a free glass of prosecco if we waited 5 minutes for a table. Even the San Franciscans were sold. So we had a pretty pleasant meal (I had salmon carpaccio, which in hindsight probably isn't the wisest choice in Florence, but it didn't seem to haunt me). Ryan had the bolognese that he was robbed of earlier in the day (although pretty average). And the yanks both had pastas - Rahul had the house special (spaghetti aglio e olio) which the waiter told Rahul exactly what it was -  spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and chilli peppers (3 ingredients which Italy does pretty well I think). Anyway, it turned out that Rahul assumed there would also be tomato sauce. He then put his hand up in the air to take it back, but before I could hide under the table and quietly die of embarassment, Ryan thankfully just politely told him "that's exactly what it's meant to be mate". And he seemed OK to just share his girlfriend's tortellini. He even took the rest of it home "to go". Phew. Afterwards, we tried to find some cool bars to go to, but either they're hidden from the tourists or they're closed in summer, so we just had one nightcap at an Irish bar. At least they're always open.

The Duomo by sunset

The next morning we got up and had the hotel breakfast, which was pretty good. I had my first cereal I think of the trip. Then we set out and wandered round Firenze, past the massive and impressive duomo, galleries, statues, monuments and everything else which makes Florence such an amazing and historic place. I think the river was especially pretty - the Ponte Vecchio bridge was beautiful with its colours reflected perfectly in the still river below. We had a wander along the river and across a few of the bridges, then ended up at the Galileo Museum. This bloke was pretty smart, and discovered a few things which have been helpful to modern society. In short, he's one of the greatest scientists of all time, and they had some of his original telescopes there that he used to discover things like the moons of Jupiter and sunspots. I'd read that that his middle finger had been preserved and displayed in the museum, but we couldn't find it, but no worries coz that would have been a bit gross. Anyway, we both really enjoyed the place, so it turns out I do like museums after all!

Donatello, but without the bo staff or purple bandana that we're used to seeing him with

We then grabbed some lunch nearby at a little hole-in-the-wall sandwich bar that looked/smelled good - I got a prosciutto/truffle sandwich and Ryan got a panino porchetto. Both were delicious, and cheap. Some more wandering then once the 38 degree heat got too much it was time to retreat to the air-con. A few hours later, it was time for happy hour again! Hooray! And we met up with the San Fransicans again, although they were about to jet back off to Venice. It was nice to see them again though, they were nice and friendly and funny (despite the Hard Rock issue). 

That night we went for dinner at a place near the sandwich place that we went to for lunch, as we'd seen it had a tasting menu. We went in and asked for the degustation. He just said he'd bring out a "tasting menu for 2" which actually turned out to be not what was advertised, but was still delicious - a massive meat platter and then a massive cheese platter. All yum, although I was hoping for some truffle which was advertised. Whatevs. The house wine was really good/cheap/generous so that's always good! 

Another shot of my favourite bridge

After another nice breakfast the next morning, we went to the central market, just around the corner from our place, and looked at all the fresh food produce. So much truffle products, porcini mushrooms, oils, vinegars, pasta etc it was ridiculous. We bought some bread, basil, tomato, buffalo mozzarella, truffle salsa and olive oil and we were all set for a picnic! (After me buying an Italian leather coat for a bargain - woo!) we walked through town in search of a a garden/park that was on the map. As it turned out, it was impossible to find how to get into it, so we ended up wandering aimlessly before giving up and just stopping in a secluded little suburban park with our picnic. It was actually really quite nice.

David - blonder and pinker than I expected

After the picnic we had tickets to the museum where the famous David statue is. We bought the tickets online, and I think were ripped off, but hey if we didn't have to queue up in the sun for them then we were the winners on the day! So we went into the museum, after passing through security, and Ryan taking his Kindle out, and the security guard saying (while the people continue to queue behind him):
"What is that?"
"Oh it's just a Kindle"
"From Amazon? I'm thinking of buying one"
So then Ryan had to tell the security dude how great a kindle was blah blah.

Anyway, we made it in to the museum, which turned out to be quite small. In contrast, we saw David straight away and he was much bigger than I expected!! I was well prepared for the small size of the Mona Lisa, but I was quite taken aback with how big David is. It really is great. You can't take photos though, so you'll have to be happy with the Warhol-ish version outside the museum above :)

Carpaccio with truffle

So after going back home, stopping in for a quick happy hour at our hotel, we headed off for dinner to a place where we had read had a great truffle menu. We shared an entree, primi and secondi followed by a dessert. It was all pretty delicious - carpaccio with truffle, then risotto with truffle, then egg with truffle followed by creme brulee. A pretty nice meal to end Florence on really!!

By the way, the title of this blog post is a quote by both Snooki on Jersey Shore, and Ryan (after I had previously already told him the Snooki joke, so make of that what you will).