Honeymoon (Part 3): Florence, Italy

Tuesday: Day 8 (Barcelona to Florence)

After brushing up on our Italian last night (Fluenz is amazing for French and Italian), and reading more of Dan Brown's Inferno (which takes place all over the city of Florence), we went to bed for a few hours. If those two things aren't any indication that we are super excited for the last leg of our honeymoon, I don't know what is!


We woke up at 6 and headed to l'aeroporto (the airport in Italian).

We were surprised to see the sunrise this morning, funnily enough. We hadn't seen the sun in Barcelona at all, since the Gothic Quarter is comprised of tall medieval buildings that don't allow much light to shine through.

The sunrise in Barcelona is spectacular!

Adios, Barcelona and the Mediterranean beach! Adios, delicious food! 

Benvenuti a Firenze! (Welcome to Florence!)

This must have been the world's shortest runway because the pilot slammed on the breaks as soon as the wheels touched the ground. I suppose Florence does only have one airport, and it's not an international one.

We greeted a taxi driver and recited, "Io vorrei andare a l'hotel Brunelleschi, per favore." He understood without further questions and drove us straight there! First Italian speaking success!

At check in, we were told, "I understand you're here celebrating something very special, congratulations!" to which my first reaction was "what?" and then I immediately remembered we weren't just traveling to romantic places for no reason, and that we were actually on our honeymoon!! lol.

Our travel agent worked magic yet again and we found ourselves with a chilled bottle of Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine), and a room upgrade. Yes!

We visited 5 cell carriers for a data plan in Italy.  I got cranky after the second, but admittedly, it has been useful. (We got stopped in Paris when some French guy asked us where a museum was. In Barcelona, an English guy asked where the taxi station was.)

Dinner time! Italian culture says appetizers, then first course (pasta, risotto, or some carb), then the main dish (usually meat), then coffee or dessert. How do Italians not weigh a gazillion pounds with all the pasta they eat?!

We walked back to the hotel on cobblestone streets, discovering that Il Duomo (the classic red bricked dome building you think of when you think of Florence) is only a block away from our hotel!

Our hotel is actually named for Brunelleschi, the guy who was contracted to finish building Il Duomo. And in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and Inferno, Robert Langdon stays at Hotel Brunelleschi.

They have a Hogwarts crest (ok, almost... though it's probably Brunelleschi's family crest or something), a fancy little seating area with a fireplace, and some glass corridors (where they placed a carpet on the floor so people wouldn't be freaked out).

The first day somewhere is always a little rough with having to adjust to a new culture, new language, new city. I wasn't expecting culture shock on vacation when we're only visiting each place for 3 short days! Jason misses Barcelona. Our hotel there was his favorite. However, Florence is already capturing my heart more than Barcelona ever did. The mountains in the distance and the Italian language are both so romantic. We shall see what tomorrow brings!

With love from Florence,
Anne and Jason
(who is currently finishing a movie on his tablet and not sleeping. Yet.)

Wednesday: Day 9 (Florence)

Today we had a full day Tuscany tour. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel (aka shoved croissants and cheese in our mouths and dashed out in 5 minutes) and headed out of Florence. First stop: Monteriggioni, a castle fortress overlooking the countryside.

Monteriggioni is referenced a lot in Jason's video game Assassin's Creed, in which he plays the main character and runs around trying to accomplish missions and climbs walls in a white hooded thing. So guess what he wants to do?

Our next stop was Siena, a cold and rainy city, where I bought a pair of Italian leather boots because my flats were getting wet from attempting to jump over the puddles. Later on, I discovered that my Italian leather boots are made in China... Sigh.

Then a vineyard called Tenuta Torciano in the San Gimignano area taught us how to taste their Chianti wines, olive oils, and truffle oils.

We purchased a few bottles of Chianti to be delivered to our house, it was so good!

  

As we were leaving, Jason found a cat and ran toward it. He is pretty much the crazy cat man.

San Gimignano is a town known for its medieval towers on a hill and spectacular rolling Tuscan hillsides. Since it was dark and deserted when we arrived, we had to use our imagination.

During the vineyard visit earlier, we were poured the vin santo dessert wine and the guy told us a hypothetical story: If you were a shy Italian guy and you went on a date with this girl you liked, you would woe her by getting a cantuccini con vin santo and swirl the biscotti in the wine 5 times... 10 times... (or as many times as you need to build up your courage)... so 20 times... 30 times... then feed it to her and give her a sip of your vin santo!

Here's Jason (post-dinner), pretending to swirl his cantuccini like 30 times before feeding it to me, lol.

We wandered around the streets of Florence later that night. We stumbled upon a huge plaza called Piazza della Signoria, which has a replica of Michelangelo's David, as well as several large marble statues in an open-air covered museum. There was a cop standing watch nearby making sure people don't deface or ruin the statue. It's pretty cool that you can accidentally stumble onto this stuff in the city!

Buono Sera! (Good evening in Italian.)

With love from Florence,
Anne and Jason (who's lying in bed attempting to fall asleep already)

Thursday: Day 10 (Florence)

Today is the last day of our honeymoon in Europe. We started the day by shoving breakfast in our faces and chugging coffee in 5 minutes, before meeting with our tour guide. (Can you sense a reoccurring theme here? We are not morning people!)

I imagine our guide grew up in Florence, fell in love with the culture, and studied the history even more in depth... it was very clear that she has a deep love and appreciation for the amazing city she lives in.

This is the front of Hotel Brunelleschi. The tower (to the right) houses the amazing $6000/night suite with a chandelier, jaccuzi, and view of Il Duomo. Our guide said that centuries ago, she and I would have been able to stay up there too... but not Jason. That's because back in the medieval times, it used to be a women's prison!

We made our way to the Piazza del Signoria that we accidentally stumbled into last night. This is City Hall, but also one of the houses of the Medici family (they held the power of the whole city).

Though the marble sculptures serve as artwork and decoration to us today, they functioned with a practical purpose long ago: as propaganda and a way to speak to the masses, since many couldn't read. They're commissioned by the city, government, or people of power, and they're all highly oppressive (Pegasus cutting off the head of Medusa, women being raped, a man cutting down a centaur)... to show everyone - residents and enemies alike - what happens when you mess with the people in power. Very crude!

The Vasari Corridor was built as an above-ground private passageway to connect the Medici family's two houses, because they wanted to walk above the commoners and not have to mingle. It spans 1km (0.7 miles) long, starts at the town hall, runs above the Uffizi, down and across the River Arno, all the way to the Pitti Palace. In Dan Brown's Inferno, the Robert Langdon evades murderers, saves relics, and travels the length of Florence through the Vasari Corridor.

Behind us is Ponte Vecchio.

The Vasari Corridor runs on top of the Ponte Vecchio too.

A long time ago, meat vendors had shops on the Ponte Vecchio, until the smell of rotting meat offended the delicate noses of the Medici family as they walked the Vasari Corridor above, so they banished all the meat vendors. Even today, it's a street/bridge that only houses jeweler shops.

River Arno from the viewpoint of the Ponte Vecchio. The reflection of the bridge on the water creates such a perfect little never-ending circle! Gorgeous.

The place that arguably defines Florence is probably the Cathedral (aka Il Duomo). It's in a square comprised of 3 buildings: Il Duomo (with the red domed roof), the Bell Tower, and the Baptistery of Saint John.

Il Duomo and the Bell Tower were commissioned with the intent of showing foreigners the richness of the Florentine culture and town. It's built with three types of Florentine marble native to Tuscany - white, greenish blue, and reddish pink. Il Duomo was built with a huge open area in the center of the cathedral, for which nobody could construct a structurally sound roof for cover, so it stood open for 100+ years... until an architect named Brunelleschi came about and designed a smaller thick dome for integrity, then a larger thin dome directly on top, with space in between the two domes. 

Michelangelo dubbed this "the Gates of Paradise" into the Baptistery. The 10 panels each depict a major scene from each of the 10 books of the First Testament. 

The front of Il Duomo.

The side/backview of Il Duomo.

The Bell Tower.

The Galleria dell'Accademia is home to some amazing talent. Sculptors normally make a first draft using plaster before even touching the slab of marble, so they know the exact dimensions to create on marble. This was the case for everyone except Michelangelo. He felt that the sculptures were trapped in the large slab of marble, and he was freeing them... akin to the souls being trapped inside a body. That's pretty evident in his unfinished pieces of art, which often look like they're trying to free themselves from the marble they're trapped in!

This whole hallway showcases Michelangelo's David. All I'll say is, if you ever get a chance to see it in person, it is totally worth it to find a guide who will explain all the intricacies of Michelangelo's artwork.

Part of the reason David is so renowned is because Michelangelo really understood human anatomy - each muscle and vein in his sculptures is perfect. His talent was recognized so resolutely, that at age 16, one of his mentors started sneaking him into the hospital at night so that he could dissect human bodies and gain knowledge of the human anatomy that way!

In Dan Brown's Inferno, when Robert Langdon makes a trip to Florence, he always visits Piazza del Signoria and sits at Rivoire with a cup of coffee, watching people enjoy the open air museum of sculptures and the replica of David.
So we went and did that, with hot chocolate and earl grey tea!

Jason got some classic Italian lambskin leather loafers.

We strolled the streets of Florence for the rest of the day, walking back to Ponte Vecchio, exploring the leather district, window shopping the designer stores.

For dinner, we went to a little local place called Cammillo and ordered this AMAAAAZING dish called pappardelle (fettuccine with lamb sauce) to share. (OMG it was so good. I should have been getting this at all the places EVERY DAY while in Italy!!) We went with server recommendations and got some seared beef and a huge steak. Perhaps it was classically Florentine, but it also seemed American? Regardless, it was nice.

Pappardella with lamb sauce. BEST DISH EVER!!

It's been 10 days and we have traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to explore 3 incredible and distinctive cities that have so much individual culture and pride!

We're back in the States now (currently on a layover in JFK) and heading back to real life... not as newlyweds on our honeymoon anymore, but rather as husband and wife! That is still so weird to say. We're excited to go home, sleep in our own beds, cuddle with the KITTIES, and get back to our normal routine.

With love from NYC,
Anne and Jason (who just woke up from a little nap waiting for our connecting flight)

<3