Mega-Vacation Day 3 - Florence, Italy

Day 3 (Florence):
So after two days, there were two main things I noticed about Florence: first, it really is not as touristy as people say. In certain parts, like the Uffizi Gallery and Ponte Vecchio, you are more likely to hear English than Italian, but overall, I felt like Florence does a good job of maintaining its local flair: narrow streets with tons of mopeds, relative lack of food chains (except McDonald’s, which Florentines evidently love), and an Italian hospitality, or lack thereof. At least at the places we ate, waiters made little to no effort to speak English – a good thing, but only because MT and Andrew know a good deal of Italian between the two of them. The second thing are the prices: wow. I expected to pay upwards of 15 euros per meal. Instead, you could get a two-course meal + wine for around 8-9 euros. Part of this was because we avoided tourist hotspots, but even so, it was tough to find anything massively overpriced. At one supermarket, we found 2-liter water bottles for…40 cents. Ridiculous.
That being said, of the two days, our second was definitely more touristy and we did manage to see the outrageous prices of jewelry on Ponte Vecchio and at the Uffizi Gallery. We began the day at the Church of Santa Maria Novella – maybe the best kept secret in Florence, as it is home to famous sculptures/paintings by Masaccio, Giotto, Ghirlandaio, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Donatello. Plus, the frescoes behind the altar are wonderful. I give it an A.
Santa Croce, what I thought would be the best church, was a disappointment. We met up with Andrew to go here in the late morning, but we ran into what would become a recurring problem: construction. Everywhere we went, something was being restored and therefore blocked off. In this case, tons of cool things were inaccessible, like Giotto’s great frescoes by the altar and Dante Aligheri’s tomb. It really ruined the experience. That being said, Santa Croce was still a bit like the Pantheon in France – it is home to the tombs of most of Italy’s all-stars: Dante, Michelangelo, Fermi, Galileo, and Machiavelli. Not quite as impressive as France’s Pantheon (Rousseau, Voltaire, Marie Curie, Hugo, Dumas) because it was more crowded and you couldn’t get very close to the tombs, but Galileo’s tomb especially gave me an eerie feeling.
After Santa Croce, we hit up “Pino’s” (a cool Italian sandwich dude) for lunch and headed for the Uffizi Gallery, notable for its da Vinci’s, Botticelli’s, and some others – a nice museum but probably not the best I’ve seen – I still weirdly prefer the National Gallery in London due to its lack of crowds and diversity of paintings. But the Uffizi is of course still a must-see for Italian Renaissance paintings.
The Uffizi borders the Arno River, which cuts through central Florence and where we saw something I’m not sure I ever have seen: a beaver – in the middle of the city. Weird. Nearby was Ponte Vecchio, the famous covered bridge and home to astronomically-priced jewelry and watches.
We crossed to the south side of the Arno to quickly view Pitti Palace (not too exciting from the outside) and to find a place to eat dinner (recommended by Rick Steves). We wandered along the Arno for a bit after saying goodbye to Andrew, who had to return to his host family for his last dinner before leaving Florence after 6 months there. The biggest surprise was the church Santa Maria del Carmen, mostly tourist-free and awesomely decorated. Unfortunately, it was closing so we only got a quick peek. Dinner was traditional – pasta and a mean Italian waiter who was shocked that we did not want the 4-course meal. Not the best meal in Florence, but it sufficed.
The highlight of the day came in the evening, when we summated a nearby hill to Palazzo Michelangelo (home to another David replica) and Chiesa (church) San Miniato al Monte. Wow – the best view of the city hands down, especially as the sun was setting. A perfect end to a lovely trip to Florence. Two days, though packed, was the perfect amount of time here. Time to move on…
One last tidbit: I made a bit of a goof when an American on a bike stopped me and asked (in English) if I spoke English: I responded “oui” on instinct. Haha – responding to an American in Italy in French…mais ce n’est pas grave!