If you didn’t get a chance to read about days 0-4 in Venice, you can check that out here. Now, on to Florence!
Day 5 (Nov. 6) – Venice to Florence, Renaissance Walk, and the Basilica of Santa Croce
We got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, went back to grab our luggage, and then headed outside to meet up with the rest of the group for board our private water taxis. As with everything in Venice, getting anywhere is a production. But, we all loaded up in 3 different water taxis, luggage and all, and headed to the Piazzale Roma (car park) and train station, making our way through the Grand Canal among heavy morning traffic.
Once we made it to the pier at the Piazzale Roma, we unloaded the water taxis and boarded our bus. We drove through industrial areas outside of Venice, on through farmland, and finally climbed the Apennine mountain range as we made our way to Florence. On the way, we stopped at two different roadside truck stops, one being called “AutoGrille”. They have interesting snacks, restaurants, coffee (of course!), and my personal favorite, pocket coffee!!
Once we arrived in Florence, we settled into our hotel rooms, and most of us in the group headed downstairs to eat lunch.
After lunch, we met Marijan downstairs in the hotel courtyard and headed out, across the Ponte alla Grazie (“Bridge of Thanks”) for our visit to the Basilica of Santa Croce, followed by our Renaissance walk with Angelo and Tanya. The Basilica of Santa Croce is the burial place for many famous people – Michelangelo, Dante, Galileo, Machiavelli – just to name a few. Our tour continued toawrd the Duomo. (There are several basilicas, but only one Duomo. Duomo means cathedral).
After our Renaissance walk, we finished the night at Giglio Rosso Restaurant. The food there was DELICIOUS!!
After supper, we walked back to the hotel for the night.
Day 6 (Nov. 7) – Backstreets of Florence, Santo Spirito, cooking class & lunch, Pisa
We started the morning with breakfast, and then headed out for a walk through the backstreets of Florence.
After our walk, we ended at In Tavola cooking school, where we prepared and then ate lunch. Thanks to the instruction of our very enthusiastic chefs, we made pasta, chicken, and dessert. Then we headed downstairs to eat what we had made! It was delicious!
After lunch, the group had the afternoon free, so everyone went their own way. We had decided ahead of time that we wanted to go to Pisa, so we all headed to the train station and took an hour ride to Pisa.
After a while in Pisa, and a bite to eat, we headed back to the train station and took the trip back to Florence.
We got back to Florence and went straight to bed. It was a long but great day!
Day 7 (Nov. 8) – Uffizi, shopping, & Michaelangelo’s David
We were up early and headed out as a group to the Uffizi Gallery. We had the earliest timed tickets in order to beat the crowds. It was a nice, cool morning for a walk and a visit to the gallery. Brief history: Uffizi means “offices”. The gallery was once offices built by one of the members of the Medici family in order to keep government, guilds, committees, etc., in one place so he could have power and control, and keep a watch over everything. The gallery was created after the last remaining member of the Medici family, near the end of her life in the mid 1700s, negotiated with the city of Florence to take over the family’s vast collection of art.
After our tour at the Uffizi, we had a few hours free so we found a place for lunch, before getting in a little lot of shopping. Florence is THE place to get real Italian leather, and we were on a mission to do just that…and we were all very successful:) My mom and I also bought some paintings by street artists. I did not pictures while shopping. I was too busy HAHA. We did have an afternoon “snack” before heading back to meet back up with the group for our visit to see Michaelangelo’s “David”.
Let me just say…it is impressive! It is HUGE! The details of this 16 foot statue was unbelievable! We went later in the day to avoid larger crowds, but it was still pretty busy. There was also a collection of antique musical instruments in the gallery and that was interesting to see. Once we left “David”, we headed to supper, before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night. We had to pack because, the next morning, we were headed to Rome!
Up Next: Rome [Days 8 – 12]
