firenze part 2: "Rome is hot because of the weather, Florence is hot because of the people"

On Friday, we started off the day with a visit to the Palazzo Medici, which is the amazingly huge palace where the powerful Medici's lived in Florence. We got to see some of the ornate rooms and a capella with a frescoe by Gozzoli from 1444.

In one of the courtyards of the Medici Palace-Michelangelo probably hung out here when he was younger, learning about sculpture from pieces in the Medici collection.

After the Medici palace, we headed to the Accademia gallery to see the DAVID by Michelangelo! So awesome, and pretty epic. This huge statue just epitomizes the Renaissance. It also is a symbol for Florence; just as David was the underdog against Goliath, Florence was the underdog against the bigger city of Rome. It's like saying "watch out, Rome-we are strong enough to take you on, just like David took on Goliath." They also had a Robert Mappelthorpe exhibit going on at the Accademia, which I absolutely loved. Mappelthrope was a modern photographer who took pictures of male and female nudes, which makes perfect sense to have at the Accademia considering that Renaissance scupltures like the David were attempts at perfecting the human form in marble. Some of the Mappelthorpe photographs were actually placed around the David and other Michelangelo statues, so the comparison was clear (again, no allowed pictures in the galleries!). His photographs are studies of the light and dark and geometric shapes, as well as of the human body. They were just absolutely stunning-there was even one of a loaf of bread that evoked Caravaggio with its play on shadows and light.

For lunch, Lisa took us to one of her favorite restaurants in Florence, Trattoria Mario. It is a little family-owned place (hence the "trattoria" in the name) that is only open for lunch. Lisa knows the family and everyone who works there really well. Their menu changes daily depending on what is fresh in the market. We happened to go on "seafood Friday," and I had spaghetti ai calamari for primi and pollo arrosto for secondi. It was fresh, simple, and delicous-Italian cooking at its best.

After lunch, we set off to do some shopping! Our main stop was a leather shop that Lisa has shopped at for years (again, she knows the owner! talk about connections). Florence is known for its leather and the purses are just beautiful. You walk into these stores and are surrounded by leather. Of course I had to get one! I got a great little saddle bag that I bargained down from 100 euro to 60 euro, so not bad! The purses are such good quality; the leather is treated right outside of Florence, and the bags are made in Florence. I am in love with my new purse.

Leather!!

After a little time off to nap and admire all of our leather purchases (the whole group took the shop by storm; the owner definitely "made his spaghetti" that day!), we decided to hike up to the Piazza Michelangelo, which is on a hill that overlooks Florence and the surrounding Tuscan hills. The view was GORGEOUS! We got to the top right before sunset, and stood on the edge absording the beautiful scenery and watching the sun set over Florence for a while. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Sunset over Florence, the Arno river, and Tuscany

Panorama of the view from Piazza Michelangelo-weird lighting because of the sunset on the left, a thunderstorm off in the distance in the middle, and bluer skies on the right.

For dinner, we went to a place called Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco (which means "white boar") on the other side of the Arno river, the same side of the river as Piazza Michelangelo. I got strozzapreti al burro, which are spinach and ricotta dumplings. So good! I cannot believe how well I am eating on this trip, although we walk so much every day I'm not too worried about gaining any weight!

On Saturday, our last day in Florence, we checked out of our rooms, stored our luggage for the day, and set out for our tour of the Palazzo Vecchio. This was built to be, and still is, the center of the Florentine Government. The Medici also lived there for a while. We had a tour guide to show us around, and it was cool to see places like the Hall of 500, where government officials would meet, and the secret room complete with a spyhole for one of the Medici's mistresses.

In the Hall of 500-there was no way to capture the whole, gigantic room

A ceiling frescoe in the old Medici living quarters-the style is called "grotesque" because this type of decoration was inspired by art seen in grottos of southern Italy (grotto-esque).

One example of the many ornate details in the Palazzo-this is a ceiling.

The secret spyhole in the mistress's room! It looks down onto the Council of 500 so she could spy on what was going on during social events, etc.

The view of the interior courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio, from a window inside the building

Then we headed over to the Mercato Centrale for olive oil/balsamic vinegar tasting! The place was called Conti's, after the owner Stefano Conti (who Lisa knew, once again!). His wife gave us tastes of different balsamics with cheese, fruit, or just in a spoon. Their flavors differ according to age; younger are more vinegary, older are more sweet. We also tried different kinds of Tusan olive oil, which vary according to the types of olives used. The Contis were super nice-they even showed us pictures of their son because it was his birthday that day!

After our tasting session we grabbed some paninis for lunch and sat in the Piazza Signoria (the square outside the Palazzo Vecchio), listening to some live music. We met some Italian boys (the quote in the title of this blog comes from them, ha!) and talked for a while about stuff like the differences between school in the U.S. and Italy. Then it was time to catch our train back to Rome and leave Florence behind. I was sad to leave, but I do love Rome and was ready to go back.