Florence, Italy- February 3-5, 2009

This was the trip I have looked forward to the most since we moved to England. I have always wanted to go to Italy...and more particularly, I've always wanted to go to Tuscany. To me, Tuscany is the seat of good art, good food and beautiful countryside. The rustic villas I saw on television always drew my heart away to Italy. The rolling hills covered in grape vines and olive trees...the brightly colored, tiled roofed houses that dotted the countryside like flowers. Ahhh...to escape to Tuscany and bask in the sun. That was my idea of a dream vacation. And honestly, I wasn't disappointed. True, it rained every day that we were there...but it a strange sort of way, it added to the immense beauty. At the end of the day, the bright sun would break through the clouds and the wet foliage would seem that much more magical, the city of Florence, that much more majestic.

We arrived on my birthday in the Pisa Airport, rented a little dinky European car (manual...it was all they offered), strapped Weslee in and away we went. We were all hungry, tired and thirsty. We had gotten up at 4:30 am to get ready and catch our plane on time in London. We had barely eated breakfast. We packed so lightly we forgot to bring many snacks. We were so thirsty. We could hardly wait to get to our condo in Scandicci, just outside of Florence.

We arrived at our very charming Italian villa around 2:30 in the afternoon. The drive through the countryside, winding through the mountains had been breathtaking. My expectations for beauty had already been met. At every corner, I was amazed by the expanse of vineyards and the quaint villas on the rustic hills. The rain drizzled down steadily, but the sun would peek through the clouds every now and then, touching the scenery in magic. After a little searching, we found our condo. We parked under an olive tree and headed through the wrough iron gate.

Our very VERY energetic host brought us up to his condo to settle the room. He talked about a million miles an hour and his mannerisms seemed almost pushy to me. I found out later, that's just being an Italian. They are very friendly, very helpful, and very much "in your face". They want you to be comfortable in their home. When I hung back waiting to be invited to sit down, he was all loud, "Oh come, you sit. You sit here." In my face now, "You sit". Obviously, I sat. Weslee was pattering all over his apartment, trying to get into everything...his musical instruments, his art. I was obviously distracted and trying to keep an eye on him, as was Kevin. "You no worry. He is OK." We couldn't help it, we worried.

He showed us to our room. It wasn't lavish, but it felt authentic. The rooms had a rustic feel about them as if we were really living in the Tuscan countryside. It added to the experience, even if it wasn't completely convenient.

At this point, our stomachs we protesting LOUDLY. We asked about nearby restaurants. We were told that we were "in the countryside. The restaurants generally aren't open on Mondays and Tuesdays". I found myself thinking "Well duh...anyone would know that! Why would anyone want to eat out on a Monday or Tuesday!" But, he gave us directions to a pizza restaurant that "might" be open closer to Florence and a supermarket as well.

When we got to the pizza restaurant, we found it closed. We had assumed that Italy would work like England and the rest of Europe...meaning, you need to get food before 6pm because everything closes at that time. WRONG! Italians take a siesta. That means that the entire country shuts down from 2pm to 5pm. Restaurant employees return to work at 6pm and the place doesn't officially open up until 7pm. Then, they serve food until 2am. We were standing, starving, in front of the restaurant at 5pm...2 more hours to wait. We couldn't do it. We decided to take our chances in the dinky supermarket.

After roaming around confused for an hour or so, we finally decided on some chocolate flavored cereal, milk and fruit for breakfast the next day. We put a few different breads in the cart. I got a couple of packages of what looked like lunch meat (but I honestly couldn't tell if it was cooked or not, and I was nervous beyond reason) and some provolone cheese with a rind on it. And, then we bought some fresh vegetables (onions, zucchini and bell peppers) and a package of something that looked like chicken and sausage from the butcher and headed home.

We cracked into the bread while I was cooking. I literally mean we "cracked" into it. It was hard as a rock and had NO FLAVOR whatsoever. We were starving and it still wasn't very appetizing. We found out that many Tuscan breads are made this way...hard and lacking flavor. Who knew that the hailed capital of Italian cuisine would be so clueless about bread? I got to work immediately with my cooking experiment for dinner. I sauteed the veggies and meat together and grilled thin slices of bread with provolone cheese on them for dinner. To be honest, it was delicious. I don't know if it was because we were starving or because it really was that good. But, man! It hit the spot. I even took pictures of the whole ordeal, it was so tasty. We went to bed early, exhausted, but finally, our stomachs were satisfied.

On Wednesday, we woke early and headed to Florence. We finally found a place to park (though we had no idea where we were in relation to the things we wanted to see). On our way to the city, we stumbled across a large car park overlooking the city (because we made a wrong turn...stupid Tom-Tom) that became a favorite place for us for pictures. We went to this overlook every day that we were in Florence for pictures. The city changed moods every time we came. We were so glad to have our dinky Italian car at the car park because the parking spots were made for toy cars, not real ones...and if we had been in our Stratus, we would have never fit. But, we fit, with room to spare. We threw Wes into the stroller (which was pink and purple, because we forgot his stroller and our friend, who only has girls, loaned us theirs at the airport when he dropped us off. We got so many ODD looks from people as we wheeled Weslee, our strapping young boy, around in a girl's flowery stroller. So embarrassing.) and headed off to the city. Just walking among the buildings was an experience. I've never been any place quite like it. Small, tight alleyways actually lent charm to the place, and craziness to the already crazy traffic. It was charming.

We found a map and figured out where to go. We headed first to the Piazza del Signoria and saw the Fountain of Neptune, the replica of the Statue of David, the Palazzo Vecchio, and alot of other art. This is where Kevin first realized he was going to be seeing alot of nude people. We had someone take our picture at the fountain of Neptune, and I cracked up when I got my camera back and looked at the pictures. In the picture, Weslee, Kevin and I are all cozy, looking like a happy family...and then up in the right hand corner of the frame is the giant reproductive part of Neptune himself. Hello! We walked around and looked at some of the other statues. Almost all portrayed some scene from a war...but apparently, back in the old Roman and Greek days...everyone liked to fight in the buff. I thought, for some reason, of the Lamanites...and I wondered what all of these nude people (who remembered to wear their helmets at least) would have done if they had met with Captain Moroni's army? Hmmm...it makes you wonder.

Anyway, we headed from there to the Piazza del la Republica to see the government buildings and the exact center of Florence. Usually there are artists there in the square painting...but it must have been too cold and rainy that day for artists. So, we moved on.

Next, we headed to the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (or the Duomo, as it's known in Florence). It was gorgeous. Carved out of white, pink and green marble, the massive structure with its brick dome rose like a giant out of the other clustered buildings. This was our main objective for today, and it turned out to be our favorite experience from Florence. We first went in to tour the cathedral. It housed works by Michelangelo, Dante and Donatello. We listened to an audio tour of the place. Mostly though, we just took in the immense space. There were hardly any pews or chairs in the chapel and we wondered if they set up chairs or if people stood during mass. We never did figure it out. The main attraction indoors was the cupola. The large domed ceiling was covered by a painting depicting the last Judgement begun by Vasari in 1572 and completed by Zuccaro. It was breathtaking, mainly because I couldn't imagine being up that high, for so long to paint something so detailed. It would have frightened me to death.

The highlight, however, was climbing to the top of the Duomo. Kevin (who was hefting a 30 pound child the whole way...my hero!) and I hiked the almost 500 steps to the top of the dome, getting a better glimpse at the fresco inside the dome, the structure of how it was built (out of bricks...seriously, this thing must weigh a TON), and got an amazing view from the very top of the building of the whole city. We were breathing heavy when we reached the top, but it was so worth it to see the patchwork of buildings that made up Florence, the Tuscan hills surrounding the city...just beautiful.

While we were up there, we ran into a group from Brazil, and Kevin enjoyed brushing up on his Portuguese as well. Weslee spent his time flirting with the Brazilian girls who kept taking pictures of him and exclaiming every other word, "Que lindo" (how cute).

After all of that exercise, all of us were hungry and tired, and it was getting close to siesta time. We went to a place called the "Yellow bar" for pizza, calzones, and pasta. Kevin ordered some pizza with purple onion and sausage. It didn't turn out quite the way either of us had pictured. They didn't mix any of the ingredients. There were a couple of wedges of pizza that had cheese and only onions. A couple with cheese and only sausage. And a couple with cheese and only peppers. It was a strange pizza indeed...especially the onion slices. Gross. I ordered a cheese and ham calzone, which I thought was SO DELICIOUS. We also got some Spaghetti Carbonara. The waitress looked at us kind of strange when she came back and all of the plates were clear. Crazy Americans! We eat way too much. Oh well.

Our eating wasn't finished either. I had researched gelaterias before going to Italy, and I had the address of the best ice-cream shop in Florence...Gelateria dei Neri. We headed there before heading home. We come vanilla and strawberry gelato...and fell in love with Italian gelato. We went to this gelateria every night we were in Tuscany. It was so good. We tried Mango (not so great), White Chocolate (which was pretty good, except neither of us really like white chocolate), and blackberry, which was amazing.

On our way to the car, we crossed over the Ponte Vecchio bridge, a bridge with lots of shops and apartments that is a symbol of Florence. We decided it was too many jewelry shops all in one place. We wondered how they all stayed in business.

We came home very happy with all we had accomplished. We put Weslee to bed and settled onto the couch, under the heater to read our books. Kevin was reading the Borne Identity, and I was reading the Twilight series. I was hooked, I tell you. Who knew I could be hooked to a series about high school aged vampires?

The next day, we took a different approach. We spent the morning hours driving around the Tuscan countryside. We took in the views and enjoyed the amazing scenery. This was actually Kevin indulging me. Every time we saw something amazing, he'd pull over and let me snap a picture of it. It was still a a little misty in the morning, but it was a gorgeous day, nonetheless. I took so many pictures.

We got out and walked a little through the olive groves and enjoyed the wet morning. But, by the time we reached home again, Weslee was tired and ready for a nap. We let him sleep while we read a little more from our books. We had sandwiches for lunch and just lounged until after the siesta hours. And then, we headed into Florence to experience it at night.

We went to Le Campiano pizza restaurant around 8pm. We both ordered pizza. Kevin still wasn't impressed with their thin crust variations on pizza, but at least the toppings were all mixed together. I loved my pizza...but then, I like thin crust. Mine had 3 different cheeses, fresh basil, roasted tomatoes and eggplant. It really was divine. I could live in Tuscany and eat like the Italians do. Everything except their nasty bread, that is. And then, of course, we had to go get some more gelato. After dinner, we headed up to the parking lot again that overlooked the city. I took some night time pictures of the place. We would have done more, but poor Weslee was conked out in the back seat again, and we decided to head home.

All in all, it was a lovely time in Florence. We didn't see everything. I don't think 2 days is really enough time to experience a city like this. Especially as parents of a young child, we didn't really expect to experience all of Florence. We didn't see as many art galleries as we had planned...but we did experience the art...just mostly out in the plazas where Weslee could run around and chase pigeons while we did it. We're finally learning to plan our trips, not like single or newly married people would do...but like parents would do...taking ample time to linger, stretch, walk and enjoy the simpler pleasures of the places we visit.