Florence . . . .

(posted June 3, in Krakow, Poland)

Florence, Italy- May 19th- May 22

I arrived in Florence on May 19th (my dad's birthday) and was THRILLED to see my parents at the train station! It was so fantastic to see them and 4 days were not enough to catch up on almost three months! They took great care of me, and my dad wore my huge pack all the way to the hotel (a good 12 blocks or so . . . and its a HEAVY backpack!). Hotel Bretagna was gorgeous - converted out of an old Gianfigliazzi family palace it sits right on the Arno river and was decently close to everything. Our room was full of character, and the breakfasts were good! It was so nice to be in a hotel instead of a hostel, I couldn't get enough of it!
(sideways parents in hotel room)

Okay- Florence was incredible. The buildings, the museums, the FOOD, and just the general atmosphere. It was definately a strolling-around kind of place, and we planned our days by when and where we would stop for our next cappacino/gelatto/pizza/pasta, etc.

We celebrated my dad's birthday the first night I was there, and we shared a few seafood dishes. I finally tried a little pulpito (tiny little baby octopus), after having only eaten a leg in Lima, Peru. It wasn't too bad actually. The squid was better, however :-) I couldn't handle the after-dinner grappa, however, and my dad had to finish mine!

Museums included the Uffizi where we saw Leonardo da Vinci's, Botticelli's, Michaelangelo's, Raphael's and Rembrandt's. If only there had been Donatello's we would have had all 4 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's spoken for! The Botticelli's were amazing and definately my favorite.

We also visited the Galeria del Accademia where Michaelangelo's "David" is housed. I had no idea how HUGE the statue of David was, and it was really fairly incredible to behold. The detail on the arms and hands was amazing, but very much lacking on the legs. We came back there a second time after my parents randomly made friends with the manager of the museum bookshop in a nearby park.

Many beautiful churches were also visited, and other museums, but I didn't keep a running list as I should have!!

Our favorite cafe (I think) was Za-Za, which I would highly reccomend. Everything was fantastic, the bread, steak, wine, truffle ravioli, walnut ravioli, appetizers- everything! The decor inside was fun and quirky as well, absolutely perfect!

The hot chocolate at various cafes was definitely on par with anything I tasted in South America. Its amazing how terribly we do hot chocolate in the U.S.!

The people in Florence were not particularly friendly but the men were solicitous enough. Not in an offensive manner, but in a sweet flirtacious kind of way. The waiters were generally very nice and helpful, and many people spoke English. Most of the menus had English translations as well, which helped a great deal. I had actually spent time trying to learn some basic Italian while I was in Canberra, but in the end it wasn't really needed.

I had an absolutely incredible time with my parents, and my mom and I were sad to say goodbye to my dad on the 22nd. She and I took a train to Bologna where we caught a flight to Krakow.

Well, I've been at this internet cafe for over 2 hours and I need a break . . . Mom, Dad, maybe you would like to add comments with other places we visited? Other adventures had?

Anna with Florence behind her

Anna and Dad with the Ponte Vecchio bridge and the river Arno behind them