Firenze - The city of Gelaterias

During the couple day break between my Intensive Italian class and the beginning of 'real' grad school courses, we decided to spend a night in Firenze (aka Florence) before heading over to Cinque Terre.  Just a short hour or so train ride from Bologna, Firenze is definitely worth a visit.  We plan to go back during the off season to check out the fantastic museums and spend a little more time at the Duomo.  The line to get into the Uffizi Gallery was insanely long and did not seem to let up as the day moved on so I would suggest purchasing tickets in advance. Since we only had a day, we just took in the more accessible sights like Ponte Vecchio and the Boboli Gardens. It's true what HGTV always says ... everything is better with a water feature :) The river and bridges were a nice change of scenery.  Rick Steves travel guide recommended a cute little sandwich shop near the Uffizi that gives you a free glass of wine with your purchase - fantastic! As the title indicates, Firenze must have more gelato shops per square foot than any other city I've been in. Not that it's a bad thing, just different. They also seem to have more tourists (aka English speakers) than anywhere else, too. It's like being back in the States but with much more history and art. Firenze also happens to be located in Tuscany - the land of beautiful rolling hills, vineyards, and vino.  I am very much looking forward to the next trip.

Found a cat sleeping under the bench at the gardens.

The Duomo

The line to get into Boboli Gardens - thankfully I found a super secret alternate way in.

Ponte Vecchio

Arno River

Yes, it is a toilet in the shower. This is what happens when you book at the last minute. Also be warned that Florence has a massive mosquito problem. We spent a good 30 minutes trying to kill the swarm infesting our room. Ick.

I love this statue. A little kung-fu, a little 'shh, I have a secret', a lot of fun :)

Still waiting for my free jewelry ...

The Alps

Okay, so it's been a little over a month since my first post so I will try to play a bit of catch up with the next few. We are settled into our apartment now - just in time for the real classes to start up at school. I've learned a few general things about Italy that were somewhat surprising ... 1. The bread is, unfortunately, not that great. We have been searching for decent whole grain (or at least whole wheat) bread, but can only find the plain white and generally not so tasty bread. Ah well. We'll survive until we can fit in a trip to Germany, France, or Austria where I hear the bread is delicious. 2. We probably do eat gelato more than we should. Let's face it, though, if we were home we'd likely have a carton or two of Breyer's in the freezer so it all balances out in the end. Plus the flavor are so tempting and unique over here; you have to try them all ... repeatedly. 3. They definitely have better yogurt flavors (walnut, kiwi, pineapple to name a few). Unfortunately, yogurt, soap and just about any other semi-liquid substance seems a bit runny over here compared to the thicker US counterpart. More on the country comparisons later. Our first trip outside Bologna was to the Alps. More specifically to a town near Bolzano named Trafoi. I absolutely love the mountains. The views were stunning - much grander and sharper than the mountains at home. Although we were still in Italy, everyone spoke German and were even seen sporting some lederhosen. The food we had at a little Italian place the second night was delectable. I would give almost anything to get the recipe for the zucchini soup we had - so smooth yet complex with layers of flavors I can only begin to guess at. Enough talk. Here are some pictures to back up my claims ...


Trautsmandorf Gardens - definitely worth a visit.






Flower box on top of a mountain.


Our hotel ...