Florence (Day 8) - Palazzo Vecchio, Pitti Palace, all'Antico Vinaio

The Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio are located right around the Piazza della Signoria. It's actually a nice square, but for some reason, I didn't really take any pictures of it. Below is a decent picture looking at the square from one direction, but if you look in the opposite direction, there are some nice buildings.

The castle-like structure is the Palazzo Vecchio, previously better known as the Palazzo Ducale. It is Florence's town hall, and was formerly the Medici duke's residence. Apparently, this palace, built in the early 1300's is the main "symbol of civil power" for the city of Florence.

Yup, that's cupid.

Below is the Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred). Apparently there's some history to the paintings on the two walls. This is the only place where Leonardo and Michelangelo worked on a project together, but in the mid-16th century, the hall was renovated, and The Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo and the Battle of Angihiari by Leonardo were lost. Some believe that Leonardo's Anghiari painting is hidden behind one of the murals painted by Vasari.

Well this looks unpleasant.

Some other works from the Palazzo Vecchio. Hard to imagine people lived in these rooms.

To cross the Arno River, you use the famous Ponte Vecchio. 

The Vasari corridor, built above the bridge, was basically a way for the Medicis to travel safely between the Palazzo Pitti and the Palazzo Vecchio. Along the corridor, there used to be butchers who would just drop the scraps into the river. After being kicked out, the space was taken by gold merchants. The bridge is nice to see from afar, but on it, it's just a whole bunch of jewelry stores.

Next, we went to Pitti Palace which is across the river. 

When you take a look at how small the people look in front of Pitti Palace, you get the sense that this place is humongous. There are several art galleries here along with two enormous gardens. We ventured into the garden for a bit, which looks nice, but just seems like a huge undertaking to really explore it. 

We decided to just stick with our guide book's recommendation to focus our time on the Palatine Gallery. 

Again, pretty hard to imagine people using these as living quarters!

This gallery was well done. It had some nice art work, an easy to follow museum layout, and they had great explanations for each of the pieces of art. This place was also cool because it very much felt like a palace.

From there, we headed for lunch to All'Antico Vinaio, a famous walk-up panino shop.

You basically tell the guy what kind of meat you want, then they recommend some additional items to put on it whether a specific cheese or veggie.

 They also have self-service wine which was 2 euros for a glass.

Of course for me, that meat is porchetta with cheese and tomatoes. The porchetta was very tasty, and the food very good. Worth the wait in line.

From there, we went to Gelateria de Neri, which made some unique flavors. Not my favorite, but it was good.

We also stopped by a Cantucci bakery...

And a Lindt chocolate shop. Now, Lindt isn't Italian by any means, but this store had so much stuff!

For dinner, we went to Trattoria Il Contadino. 

This place has really good reviews for its cheap, but good food. To put in perspective, the restaurants we've been going to are about 30-35 euros per person (10 for pasta, 15-20 secondi, 2 coperto, 2 water). Here a fixed price menu is 14.50 for 2 courses, a side dish, coperto, wine, and water. This is definitely a value meal. 

The Caprese above is not nearly as fresh, pasta was good but nothing you couldn't have here in America, and the Porchetta was a bit dry. Walking out, I was unimpressed and disappointed. Reflecting back, I guess you get what you pay for, and it's not a bad deal. 

In Trastevere (Rome), they have a lot of these cheaper places where you can get a fixed price menu for 10-20 euros. We never got to try one, but I imagine it may be similar or better. What's my conclusion? Well if I'm on vacation in Italy, and may or may not ever come back, I'm gonna spend the extra 15 euros to get an awesome, authentic Italian meal.