Florence

After meeting the owners of our mini Bed and Breakfast (home stay), Veronic and Nycolas Martin, we played with their 2 year old son, Lukas. He loved JJ and probably already understood some basics in English, Italian, and French! We soon learned that the gorgeous old building, literally in the best location we could ever imagine in Florence (5 minute walk to the Uffuzi or Piazza de Republica – 5 minute walk to the Ponte Vecchio or Duomo), was built in the 13^th century! No wonder they didn’t have air conditioning!

The first night in Florence, we decided to check for a trattoria (Italian restaurant) nearby. We soon discovered that directly below us (at the bottom of our building), there was “Trattoria Nelle”. It actually was hilarious being able to walk down the stairs and into a restaurant! We had a fantastic meal and JJ had the “best gnocci” he ever tasted there. We could not believe how cheap the wine was and how many Americans were at this restaurant that was tucked on our side street. The Italians must have been all at the beach, escaping the heat. JJ and I separated from my Mom in our attempt to make it to Shabbat services at the Synagogue of Florence. After winding our ways through the streets, we stumbled upon this incredible structure. I could not believe the beauty of this place! I could not wait to go inside and literally as JJ reached for the handle to the door, a very large Italian military office stopped us in our tracks. Yep, we missed services. We soon learned that the Chabad was having a Shabbat diner around the corner and were ushered in to their room by some Israeli girls walking down the street. We said prayers and had some wine, but did not stay for the whole meal. We really just wanted to see the inside of the Synogogue, as JJ’s brother Zach had directed us to. The rest of the first night, we walked and walked. All of the big sights are within walking distance and there were so many people out. After only walking 5 minutes away, JJ and I stopped dead in our tracks at the first sight of the Duomo. Holy _______ (you can fill that part in yourself). Well it was holy! The Duomo is an incredibly large church with white, green, and pink marble covering it! At first, I thought it was paint, but upon taking a closer look, I realized that every single detail of this incredible building was stone! Built to last! After many hours, we made our way back.

The next day, we headed out to the Mercado Centrale. We wound our way there past the Piazza Santa Lucia Inside the market, we were amazed by the smells and sights! There were fresh meats, dried meats, dried anything (really!), seafood (also dried haha!), flowers, fruit and produce stands, etc. etc.. There were so many Italians there also! We really enjoyed going there and purchasing a few goodies! Next, we headed to get some lunch by the Uffizi museum for our appointment to enter (yes, it is so crowded in the museum you need to reserve a special time to come in or you could be waiting for hours – even days! Where we had lunch, we finally found brown pistachio ice cream Zach set us out to find. The difference was incredible! We will never have green colored again. The detail of the painting’s at the Uffuzi ridiculous, but what was more memorable was the different hand-painted frescos taking up every inch of ceiling space through the entire museum. The highlights of the museum were the “Birth of Venus” and “Spring” by Bottacceli. Even though there were so many incredible paintings there, the ones about Greek mythology were our favorites. We even saw Zephyr (the God of Wind and the name of our beach ultimate Frisbee team) in a few of them. After 3 hours of wandering through the museum, we headed for rest and then to dinner at a local restaurant where our host, Nycolas was the chef! The meal was delicious and so was the liter of wine we drank for only 8 euros! After dinner, JJ and I set out for the Piazza Michelangelo, a place high on a hill, where you can see all of Florence! It was amazing and breathtaking! We hiked up there in the dark, but JJ went back the next day and said it was just as great!

The next morning, my Mom and I went to the Boboli gardens (part of the Pitzi Palace). We had no idea that the whole garden was built on the side of a mountain, yet we trekked through, seeing marble sculptures, hidden grottos, and beautiful homes. We got JJ for lunch and then went over to the Synagogue again for a tour. As incredible as it looked on the outside, it looked even more beautiful from the inside, completely decorated in Moorish and Bezzantine styles. This place was a geometric shape lover’s heaven! We couldn’t take any pictures there, but take my word for it, if you ever go to Florence, you must go see this place! We also learned about the history of the Italian Jews and that the temple survived World War II even though the Nazis used it for a garage and then tried to mine it (blow it up). After that, we all headed over to the Edison bookstore and read up on the next place we are going to, the Italian Dolomites. We had to get more of that pistachio gelato and walked over to the same place even though there is gelato everywhere – we had to get the good stuff (thanks Zach!).