Europe - Florence - Day 4

Sunday July 30, 2006

Florence is only about 4 hours away from Venice, so our evening drive was very easy. However, as we pulled into the city we were quickly introduced to big city Italian driving. It's like New York, but add 10 times more scooters and motorcycles coming within inches of your car as they squeeze between you and the curb in a roundabout.

We had little direction of where we wanted to go initially, but we found ourselves crossing Ponte Alle Grazie, a bridge away from the infamous Ponte Vecchio, and taking a road up to one side of the Riviera. This led us to a large plateau that overlooked the city and gave us our first full perspective of Florence. This city is very beautiful to look at as the sun is going down. We had a perfect view of the Duomo, the Cathedral (The tallest building in Florence), and the Arno river that runs underneath Ponte Vecchio.

We headed back down into the maze of streets and found the Piccadilly Hotel, which was about 4 blocks away from the Duomo. The guy at the hotel wanted our passports for 10 minutes. I wasn't haven't it at first. I didn't want that thing to leave my sight after my fiasco. However, it is normal for hotels to take your passport and scan them for security purposes.

We walked into the room and it had 10 foot shutters that opened up on to one of the squares where people were sitting on benches and talking, laughing, and enjoying their evening. Florence is a very social town and we were looking forward to checking it out.

We walked down to the Centro market to see the festivities. Florence is known for its fashion, so we saw a ton of high class stores lining the streets. In between these stores are plazas with statues, high archways that lead into other plazas, and historical squares. It was 11:30pm at night and the streets were packed. A fun city to hang out in.

We walked up to Ponte Vecchio to see the Arno river at night and listen to an acoustical duo play while people sat on the bridge and listened to them as well. We forgot that hunger was setting in and it was midnight all ready. There was a restaurant near the bridge with outdoor seating called, "Mamma Mia!" Although, it caters to tourists, the atmosphere and food were real.

I decided to try their four cheese pizza. I know, I know. I shouldn't be eating pizza in Italy, but I was told that they actually make a mean pizza. The blend of cheese was great. I am sure a four cheese pizza in the states tastes just fine, but the authentic Italian cheeses made this dinner perfect. The crust had this great salty taste when it crunched, but the bread inside was very light and fresh. I am hungry just thinking about it. The marinara was sweet, but not overwhelming. Once again, another tasty dish without the heavy feeling.

We were happy with the casual encounter we had with Florence for this portion of our stay, so we headed to the hotel to get some rest and be prepared for a long fifth day.