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. 

Florence (Day 7) - Duomo climb, Campanile climb, Mercato Centrale, Uffizi, Trattoria Sostanza

Started the day off with a nice leisurely climb up 463 steps to the dome of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, aka Il Duomo di Firenze, built in 1436.

It wasn't so bad getting to the first level of the climb. And from here, you could get a good look at "The Last Judgement" frescoed by Giorgio Vasari and and finished by Federico Zuccari. 

From here you can get a good look at how this work clearly represents its name.

At this point in the climb, we were about this far from the bottom...

But on we go to the top...and this is where things got a little more narrow, and a little more curvy above us haha.

But alas, we made it, and definitely well worth it...

The castle looking structure with a bell tower on the right is the Palazzo Vecchio. 

In the distance, you can see the train station where we arrived yesterday, Firenze Santa Maria Novella. Across from the station is the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. On the right, that other dome is the Medici Chapels.

In the picture below, you can already get a look across the river. But of note, on the right is the Campanile Tower. Notice there's people up there on the tower (well guess where we're going next).

So once we made it down, we walked about 20 seconds to the entrance of the Campanile for our upcoming 414 step climb.

This one was a little easier, you get breaks at several different levels, and the stairs are just straight.

A resting spot, OR you could look at the views from here too haha

Plenty to go...

And getting closer...

And we made it...

And here's the view of the where we were standing after we climbed the Duomo.

So if you only had to pick 1 climb, which should you do? Well they obviously offer different vantage points. The climb to the Campanile is easier, and you get a closer view of the major monuments in Florence such as Palazzo Vecchio, etc. On top of that, you get a view of the magnificent Duomo, a view you can't get anywhere else. If you climb the Duomo, you get an up close look at the frescoes on the interior walls of the dome. So, it's really up to you. If you are into the art, then you gotta climb the Duomo. If you're in it for the views up top, then definitely go for Campanile. Or, do both.

Once we got back to the bottom, it was time to actually go inside the Duomo. 

From the outside, it's really a beautiful structure. Looking at it, it almost doesn't look real, with the way the colors are and all.

At night time, the colors really show themselves.

The interior of the church, at least to me, wasn't nearly as impressive, maybe I spoiled myself with St. Peter's in Rome. But you do get a look at the Last Judgement on the ceiling again...

After that, we walked across to the Baptistry. Again, for me, not much to see there. The ceiling had something that looked like the Last Judgement, except from however many hundred years prior haha.

Maybe about a 10 minute walk from the Duomo are two markets. One is the San Lorenzo Market which is made up of a lot, and i mean a LOT of leather goods...

The better market, at least for us, is Mercato Centrale! Yes, exclamation point because this place was cool. 

The most popular place to eat here is Nerbone, where they have amazing boiled beef and pork sandwiches. Panino con Bollito is a boiled beef sandwich, but it is absolutely amazing! 

In my picture below is something I've been looking forward to, yes, it looks oily (oil and wine), but it is probably the best Porchetta I've ever had. Nerbone is a place where you MUST eat when you go to Florence because the food is great and it is cheap!

The rest of the market has all sorts of stuff, from pastas to produce, to cheese, to deli meats, chocolate...Also, we got some dried fruits which I didn't get a picture of, but probably the best dried fruits I've ever had. We tried Fragola, which is strawberry (also something to note if you want strawberry gelato).

Below is fresh pasta being made in the biggest quantity and the biggest pasta machine I've ever seen.

After lunch, we went over to the Medici Chapels. I'm not sure if I was just getting tired of museums, but this was very boring for me haha. Perhaps I missed whatever was good here.

Next, we went to the Uffizi Gallery which is in a U-shaped building, evident in the picture below:

Some works from the museum...

Views of the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio from the Uffizi...

I think the Uffizi had a lot to offer. We used Rick Steves audio guide, and I think that somewhat took away from being able to enjoy the museum because we were so caught up in trying to figure out where to go. The Uffizi is one of the larger museums, and I would recommend getting an actual tour of this one, with a real, live tour guide since it sounds like they change the location of exhibits quite a bit.

From here, we went to Gelateria Perche No. Apparently this place likes to be a little more creative with flavors, and I was not impressed. In fact, for real gelato, this was probably my least favorite.

On the way to dinner, we stopped by this place...

No, you guessed wrong, it is not a museum, it's a perfume, soap, bath and body type store. Only in Italy could a bath and body store look like this...

Yes, it is expensive. A bar of soap is about 10 euros. But don't worry, if you get 3 bars of soap, it's 30 euros?

Okay okay, so the place uses local ingredients, and made from the best, etc etc... Btw, it's called Officina Profumo – Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella.

And right on queue, here is Basilica di Santa Maria Novella. This side is all colorful, while the back or the other side of it is brown.

For dinner, we made (necessary) reservations at Trattoria Sostanza. Italians typically have late meals, but one thing I learned is that it's easier to get those 7:30 reservations (usually the time the restaurant opens). I guess in translation, that's probably comparable to a 5 PM reservation here in America. 

This was probably one of my favorite restaurants in Italy. The waiter was very nice, extremely helpful, and patient. 

 The tables are family style, though you still order on your own. I've sat at communal tables for dinner before, but here, when I say family style, I mean you can spit on the person's food next to you if you wanted, or rub shoulders, whichever you prefer.

Started with the Tortellini Al Burro (butter) and Pasta al sugo (meat sauce). 

These pastas were verry good!

And of course, since we're in Florence, we tried a traditional bistecca fiorentina. I think they traditionally prepare it Rare, we asked for medium rare. I think it still came out Rare haha. It was good, but the meat was kind of tough, as if it were not great quality meat. 

 Also had the house cake which had this mini strawberries that you see there on the right.