Day 7: From Venice to Florence (traveler's exhaustion begins to set in)

{Sunday, June 1, 2014}

Yesterday's booze fiesta barista tour has caused us all to move just a tad slow this morning. As soon as we woke up, we had just 30 minutes to get packed up, showered, and ready to get on a train to Florence. Not an easy feat with 4 people and one bathroom. But, we conquered and marched down those Venice streets with all our luggage in tow, boarded our train, and napped until we reached Florence.

I think the move-move-move-museum-tour-museum-tour-picture-picture-picture-walk-walk-walksomemore mentality we've had the past 6 days has set in. Because today, we are feeling tired, and pretty "eh, whatever" about all the things to do in Florence.

We arrived in Florence around 12:30, got a little lost on our way to the apartment, met our new host, Orsola (love her, she boasts that she's a rich old lady, and you know she's not lying. I think she's Italian-fabulous), unpacked a little, and just sat on the couch for a good hour before deciding to move and go do stuff.

The view from our 2nd floor apartment: San Lorenzo Basilica

We groaned putting our shoes on, and slowly made our way down the stairs, eagerly looking forward to bedtime later that day.

As we made our way outside, we realized that the Florence map looked to be the same distance/size as the Rome map, yet everything was SO much closer - that made us beyond happy. We like shorter walks :)

We reached the Duomo...and all I can say is "wow." Again. How is it possible that every church we see just keeps getting more and more fabulous?

It was a short 5 minute wait in line to get inside, and once you enter the doors, again, you just look up and say "wow."

Looking down the main aisle

The alter

Ceiling above the alter. Stunning artwork.

The inside of the Duomo in Florence is probably the most simple interior of a church that we have seen so far in Italy, but I think that's what made it so grand. The outside is so intricately designed to draw your attention to it, and then the inside is fairly simplistic. The alter and the dome are the most artistically designed, and they completely reference God. It kind of brings your focus to Him only, not the art. If I lived in Florence, I could see this being the church I go to every week.

Since it's Sunday, most things started closing around 3 or 4pm. So we were kind of rushed out of the Duomo, and had to wait until 6pm until we were going to attend mass at Saint Lorenzo outside of our apartment. While we waited, we strolled through the streets, people watching and building-admiring.  Mass in San Lorenzo was beautiful. Completely done in Italian. We understood NONE of it, but the good thing about Catholic mass is that it is always done the same every week. So we knew when to stand, say the "Our Father," go up for communion, etc...

After mass, we stopped at a restaurant with some of the best food yet. It easily is in our top 3 favorite restaurants of the whole trip.

Vecchio Mercato in Piazza Mercato Centrale

Our waiter, Luchiano, was awesome, entertaining, and true to his word. He gave us fantastic suggestions that fulfilled every single one of my expectations for eating at a restaurant in Italy. Zach and I had two different kinds of ravioli dishes, Dad had lasagna, and Mom had gnocchi with salmon in it. For dessert, Luchiano said that they had the best cheese cake in the world, and he would stake his reputation on it. Guess what? It was the freaking best piece of cheese cake I've ever tasted in my entire life.

You should feel lucky that I actually stopped to take a picture in the middle of it, because I really could have shoved it all in my mouth at once with absolutely no regrets or shame.

After that amazing meal, we carried our full tummies back to the apartment, got ready for bed, and all passed out within an hour or so.

Tomorrow...more museums. Yay.

Ciao!
xoxo