The End of our Italy Adventure
August 16-August 24th
Once Haley made it back to Florence, we had a very busy last week in Florence. Monday morning we headed to the Uffizi and the Vasari Corridor. We spent about two hours walking through the museum before heading to our timed walk across the corridor. It was such a cool experience to be able to walk across Ponte Vechhio from above. The views along the way were so unique since we were able to see everyone below us looking over the Arno. We grabbed some gelato on our way back from the corridor and spent some time taking in the views from the balcony before heading to dinner at Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco - one of Stanley Tucci’s favorites. We ended the night catching up this weeks episode of Below Deck!
The next day was Haley’s birthday so we celebrated with a wine tour through Tuscany with a very fun group of other tourists. We were also able to taste some snack parings along the way, including one dark chocolate. The group headed back after the two tastings very enthusiastic and the whole ride turned into a karaoke bus! We had just enough time for a rooftop spritz before our dinner reservation so we enjoyed one of our last sunsets. We headed over to dinner just as it got dark and had some of the best bruschetta of the trip!
We continued to see the rest of the museums on the list on Thursday, and headed to the Boboli Gardens and the exhibits in the Pitti Palace. Unfortunately for us, a lot of the areas were under construction and it was VERY hot, but it was still cool to walk around the expansive gardens. The Pitti Palace included Palatine Gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art and the Museum of Costume and Fashion. After a couple of hours in the palace we headed to grab a snack before our Duomo tower climb (which was pretty brutal but the views were great)! The most chaotic part of our day was our 6 minute walk to dinner. We made it about 50 yards from our apartment before the torrential downpour started and we had to run right back to get our rain jackets.
We headed back to the Duomo the next morning to see the crypt, the inside of the church, and the Baptistry. We also climbed to the top of the bell tower (another 400+ steps) to see what the top of the duomo looked like from that view. After going up and down the bell tower, we had enough time before sunset to grab some Vivoli and stop at a photo booth before heading up to the top of Piazza Michelangelo. Our photo booth adventure ran into a slight issue when we didn't realize the photos had started at first which made for a very disappointing strip. It had also used the rest of the euros we had, so we had to make a quick stop to get a €7 spritz, so we’d have just enough change for another try. We made it to the top just in time to grab a spot on the ledge as it started to get very busy. After the second hike of our day, we headed to dinner on the other side of town and ended the evening with some gelato!
Unfortunately, the next morning kicked off our last day in Florence. We spent the day packing up and enjoying some last spots in the city. We started at Ino’s sandwiches before walking into Palazzo Vecchio. It just so happened that Vini e Vecchi Sapori, a restaurant Steinar really wanted to go to, was right next to us as we left the building. He went in on a whim to see if they had a dinner reservation for that night and we lucked out with the last open time slot for the evening - 10pm! We took one more celebratory walk to the top of Piazza Michelangelo, before heading back to finish packing since we now had evening plans. Before dinner we headed into the city center to do a loop past the Duomo at night one more time, and ended our stroll at the restaurant. All of the food was so good that it was well worth the late night booking.
Once everything was packed up after dinner, we headed back to get our rest before a long travel day to Switzerland to meet up with Steinar’s mom!
