Italia! Part the Second (and a surprise)

Mid-week, we took the high speed train from Rome to Florence.  We bought our tickets ahead of time online and got to the train station half an hour before our departure time, which was more than plenty of time.  The high speed train travels at up to 150 mph and what would have taken more than three hours driving took less than an hour and a half via train.  While I read and napped on the train ride, Bryan kept taking snapchat videos of the landscape whooshing by as well as the speedometer on the screen.

Are we there yet?

First impressions of Florence is that it is much smaller than Rome.  Our Airbnb was a 15 minute walk from the train station and within an hour of dropping our luggage at Left Luggage, we had already seen most of the tourist sights of the city.  Travel tip: We dropped our carry ons at Left Luggage if we arrived at a city before check-in, which were one euro per bag per hour in Florence.  I highly recommend freeing up your hands and taking advantage of that sightseeing time.

Florence also has a much more modern vibe than Rome.  The cobblestone streets are paved over with asphalt, there is continuous construction / improvement, and there seemed to be much larger thoroughfares for traffic, although not as many taxis since you can walk practically everywhere.  The apartment that we stayed in was a five minute walk from the main sights in Florence.  We had an appointment at the Accademia Gallery that evening to see the David and man, was he impressive. 

David!

In contrast to the Colosseum, which you already expect to be large from movies, you aren’t prepared for the size of David.  He’s 17 feet tall and The Main Exhibit of the Accademia.  Michelangelo’s aptly named Prisoners line the main hall that leads up to David.  They are either incomplete or arrested-in-progress sculptures of bodies, frozen in time as they struggle to emerge from the marble.  The comparison to David is amazing, particularly as you realize that all of the sculptures were done freehand by Michelangelo from singular massive blocks of marble.  You can see the individual chisel marks on the Prisoners and contrast it to the smooth skin of David.  Travel tip: Make a reservation to see the David.  We didn’t wait in line at all for the Accademia because of our reservation we made online.

Yum pizza

That night, after schlepping around Bryan’s stuff all day around the city, I was putting all of his stuff back in his backpack when I found a mysterious box...  And now we’re engaged!  If we’re friends on IG, you already saw the announcement (two weeks late).  It was a complete and total surprise, which is also why the ring doesn’t fit and needs to be resized.  Bryan had only told two people about the engagement before proposing - my dad and his best friend.  He made my dad promise not to say a word to my mom, who would have spilled the beans.  We made a lot of long-distance Facetime calls that evening to friends and family.

Surprise!  With the Ponte Vecchio in the background

But back to Florence and Italy because that’s what we’re here for!  Luckily on our second day in Florence, the only thing we had planned was a cooking class.  During the night, I was bitten on the face by a mosquito and the side of my head/face was majorly swollen.  Travel tip: there are tons of mosquitoes in Florence in the warmer months.  Pack bug spray if you can.  I took some Benadryl that we packed just in case, which made me drowsy, so I took a long nap in the afternoon before our four hour pasta-focused class that evening.  At the cooking academy, we had a professional chef guide us through making spaghetti, Sicilian style gnocchi, lasagne, red wine braised beef, and tiramisu.  It was by far the best food we had in Italy.  This is the class we signed up for - I highly recommend it!

Bryan hard at work in the kitchen

Homemade gnocchi

Our third day in Florence was the only day during the entire trip that we didn’t have anything scheduled or planned.  We hiked up to the Piazzale Michelangelo to get a hilltop view of the city and some goofy selfies and secretly made fun of all the Instamodel wannabes.  That evening we split a Florentine steak - a huge t-bone - and doubled down on some gelato that we found near our Airbnb which was the best we had in all of Italy.

View from the Piazzale Michelangelo - there were quite a lot of stairs

The largest steak

The next day, we ate a “brunch” of steamed pork dumplings at Florence’s Mercato Centrale - I ordered in English, Italian, and Chinese which was a really odd experience.  We then caught the noon train from Florence back to Rome, where we’d fly out the next day.  Back in Rome, we met up with Bryan’s friends from Michigan who happened to be in Rome also on vacation.  It was really fun for him to see some familiar faces.  We were also able to give them a twilight tour of Rome’s main attractions, walking by the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, and Pantheon.  Bryan acted like he’d been living in Rome for the last two years, sharing all his expert travel tips with them.  I much preferred the tour by night compared to the hot afternoon we spent amongst the sweltering crowds.  The number of people at all of the sights (except the Trevi Fountain) was much smaller - probably because the attractions were actually closed.  The monuments are romantically lit up against the night sky, and you don’t have to fight crowds to get a picture.

Pub food and aperol spritzes back in Rome

I feel like we paced the trip correctly and left enough time to rest and recover from all the walking, waiting, and eating.  One main event / sight per day was more than enough to keep us busy and entertained while leaving us time to wander around and explore the cities.  Below are some additional travel surprises and tips:

Italians take their dogs everywhere, which is really adorable.  We saw dogs of all shapes and sizes go into stores and restaurants.

We didn’t rely on public transportation in either city (besides the high-speed train).  We got a car service through our airbnb to and from the airport in Rome and took an Uber to the train station in Rome.  There are plenty of taxis around as well and walking to each location was easier than dealing with the tram / subway / bus system in Rome.

Before we left, everyone had warned us of pickpockets.  While we were there, we didn’t notice any thievery but there were a lot of people selling selfie sticks, water, and harassing you to buy bracelets etc.  If you ignore them, they will leave you alone.  We never felt unsafe at any point during the entire trip.

There are free public water fountains all over Rome (nasone or fontanella).  Do drink out of these or use them to refill your water bottles.  The water is deliciously cold and safe.  They even have fountains with free sparkling water.

Pack comfortable walking shoes.  We did a TON of walking in both Rome and Florence, around 10+ miles per day in Rome and 5+ miles a day in Florence.

Let me know if you’ve ever been to Italy and where you visited.  We’d love to go back again someday and do a tour of the Tuscan vineyards and countryside and maybe the northern lake region as well.  Ciao!