Followed by Florence (May 20|21|22)

We hoped off the train in Florence, and only 6 minute walk from our hotel (according to the Google maps we had saved for offline viewing). Unfortunately, maps are only helpful if you can figure out which side of the station you are on, and/or which way is North. This wouldn't be so hard, except Florence didn't have the most obvious (often completely missing) street signs. Add to that the number of narrow twisted streets (rarely intersecting as a cross, and often diverging in extra directions), and streets that don't look like streets at all, and our 6 minute walk took about 40 minutes. Of course we had actually walked past our hotel at the 20 minute mark, but it's sign is so small and on a little post actually in the doorway so we walked right by it the first time. Ironically, while the hotel has no outside signage, absolutely everything in the rooms is branded.

The hotel was really nice, and the view from our room was unbeatable (looking down on one of the best plazas in the city. We went for supper at a small wine bar on the plaza. More fantastic food. We shared an antipasti and Alaina had an amazing leg of lamb, while Jeff tried the cuttlefish pasta. Dolci was a Pancetta com caramel which was unbelievably good.

We spent the next day wandering the streets of Florence, took a walk through the bascilica on our plaza, then made our way to the giant food market to wander around and look at some of the produce. We stopped for lunch at a little place down one of the side streets the served giant portions of fantastic food for dirt cheap.

After lunch we explored a small museum dedicated to the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, followed by a climb up 420 steps to the top of the duomo for a breathtaking view of Florence. We finished the evening with yet another delicious supper at a traditional pizzeria.

We spent the next morning waiting in line to get into the Museum Academia to see Michelangelo's David. The 2 hour wait in line was made nicer by a street accordionist that played for a good portion of the wait. The statue was amazing and worth the wait to see. After the museum, we wandered the streets for a while before finding a place to eat some lunch. We seem to be instinctively drawn to Irish pubs. Doesn't seem to matter where we are, at some point we will walk past the lone Irish pub in the city. We decided to follow that instinct this time and popped in for a pint of Smithwicks extra strong. They also had free (and working) WiFi so we could figure out where the avis car rental depo was for the next day.

We went for supper at the restaurant we had seen the sign for in the pub, where we both had the bistecca fiorentina or florentine steak. Each order was a 500 g serving which they served to us as a massive 1kg t-bone, cooked just past rare in the wood burning oven. To die for!