Second and Third Day in Italy - Florence and Tuscany

It was nice to be back in my hood. We took the train up from Rome and hauled over to our hostel. We trudged up, and then were politely told that we would need to go to their sister hostel "nearby." Now, I may not be stellar at directions all of the time, but I spent some time wandering around the streets of Florence when I lived there. And Piazza della Republica and the part of Via San Gallo where the new hostel was - carrying a 35-pound bag after doing it once from the train station - is not "nearby." We had to agree, and left our bags there to come back later in the day and relocate.

Then I took Erin to the Duomo, which was my point of reference to find most things in Florence. It's giant and in the middle of things, so it served as a beacon... which sometimes helped us not get too turned around, but not always.
We then went around to some old buildings and piazzas. Piazza della Republicca is a square with with a great carousel and at night musicians came out to serenade. We headed over to Piazza della Signora where the David used to be before it was moved to the Galleria del'Accademia. The piazza had a copy with some other statues, and it's right next to Gli Uffizi, which is a great Renaissance museum. There were long lines because the gallery is small and very famous.

We also walked over to the Ponte Vecchio, which means Old Bridge. It's on of a few bridges that crossed over the River Arno, and it was the only bridge that survived during WWII. It has been around a long, long time. The Medici family used to use it to go to and from their house without having to fraternize with the public.
Then we had gelato, and we just stopped at the best biscotteria I've ever been to. Yum.

Then we went to relocate. We met our Bulgarian roommate Tzvete, who is very nice. She was in Florence for a conference about cancer growth.

After settling in, we wandered more then found dinner. We went to Trattoria Za-Za, which I had been to before but knew was good. We had great food. We had our first multi-course meal with pasta and mushroom sauce and swordfish. Erin got jumbo shrimp that she couldn't open. The restaurant was Italian family style, so we were seated next to two Italian men at the same table. After watching her struggle for some time with the shrimp, one man finally started motioning to Erin how to crack open the shrimp and get the meat out. She was pissed it was so much work,
and I was amused but glad I had ordered the fish. I think the Italian men were just happy to have to her stop playing with her food.

We wandered around a lot again after dinner then met up with Tzvete and headed to a pub that our hostel owner owns. We got some free shots (yikes) and the bartender loved Erin. Again. So she got some extra shots. Yikes. We had a beer, talked to the owner for a long time. The owner of this hostel was either really interesting or really full of junk. He says he owns five hostels and two pubs here. He's been in Florence for 28 years, and he came to get his degree in criminal law. Which he got. He was born in Switzerland to a Nigerian mother and a Phillipino father. He has 21 sisters who have the same father and two mothers. He is the only male. It was fun to talk to him, but I'm pretty sure that over the years he's made up some great stories that he likes to repeat. He started talking about how he wanted to find love, not lust, and I started to get bored. So after a while of listening and letting Erin banter back and forth, we headed back to the hostel.

We started Wednesday out by going to Boboli gardens, which is behind the Medici house Palazzo Pitti . It was great to walk around a lot, and I think it got us geared up for Cinque Terre. The gardens have a mix of structured and unstructured greenery with hilly paths and tree-framed walkways. It was expansive and steep, and definitely got the blood flowing before getting on the bus for a wine tour.

Which was awesome. We took a bus to Chianti in the afternoon for a wine tasting. The castle - Castello di Trebbio - was originally owned for a fairly powerful family in Florence, the Pazzi (which means crazy in Italian) family. They were contemporaries with the Medici family, who were by far the most powerful people in Italy at the time. The Pazzi decided times were changing, and the Medicis had to go. So in the castle we visited was where, in the 1400s, the Pazzi planned an assasination of both Lorenzo and Giuliani Medici, two powerful brothers. The Pazzi called up someone from the Vatican and had it all planned out. They would have to kill on a Sunday, the only time the two brothers were together for mass. And so it happened, but it was only partially successful. They only killed Giuliani, who was not the most powerful. Within two days, the Pazzi family had been all killed off by the Medici, and the castle was then part of the Medici property. Crazy.

The castle eventually was sold to a family who now currently owns it. They have both vineyards and olive tree groves, and they're known for their Chianti and fusion wines, and for their olive oil. We sampled wines with cheese, bruschette and meats and topped it all off with biscotti.

After the tasting, we walked to a more residential part of Florence for some of my favorite pizza at Pizzeria Spera. It's a sicilian pizzeria that I visited often when I was studying here. Erin and I got great pizza and beer for 20 euro, which was the cheapest meal we had the whole time we were in Italy. It was good to be back.

We woke up early the next day to head to Cinque Terre.