Italy-My Family Vacation-Florence

We had a wonderful time in Rome, but it was time to move on.  We boarded the train to make our way to Florence.  We absolutely loved Florence.  We stayed in a beautiful, spacious apartment within walking distance of most of the sights we wanted to see.  The apartment had five huge bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms and a big kitchen.  The only not so great thing about the apartment was a long entryway that had a step up. If the light was not turned on when we entered the apartment, it was easy to trip on the step and face plant on the hard floor.  Luckily, that only happened to one of us.  That was me.   

We saw many of the sights of Florence.  It’s a very walkable city. We went to the Centro Storico, which is the historic center of Florence.  It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It’s known for its art, culture and shopping. 

We went to the Uffizi Gallery, which is a famous landmark and art museum.  It has paintings by Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Leonardo Da Vinci.  There are more, but those are the names I recognized. We also visited the Academia Gallery, which has the famous David statue by Michelangelo.

Now, I would like to say I am extremely cultured and know a lot about art.  But I am not.  I wanted to see some of the famous works of art I had always heard about, but other than that, I kind of lost interest roaming around the museums, looking at the statues and paintings.  My friend Vicki, on the other hand, knows all about the works of art and wanted to look at everything.  And I mean everything.  I finally left her, made my much faster route and exit through the museum, and went to explore other parts of the city with my husband.  She had a wonderful day, and so did we.     

I had heard about this book, Wine Doors of Florence by Robbin Gheesling, that had pictures of all the wine doors in Florence. I ordered the book and took it with me to Italy. Wine doors date from around 1532 and were in use until the early 1900’s.  These wine doors were used by the nobility to sell their wines.  People would knock on the doors or ring a bell to be served. 

We had so much fun walking around Florence, looking for the wine doors listed in the book.  Each picture had an address included, making it easier to find the doors.  Even so, some of the doors were still a little hard to find.  Most of these doors are no longer functional, but there are a few from which wine is still sold. We found one door where they were selling wine.  The kids, and Vicki, all had a glass of wine.  I did not have one, because I do not like the wine in Italy. It is very dry. I only like very sweet wine.  Basically, juice. 

Looking for the wine doors was a wonderful way to see to the city. We went to places in the city we would not have otherwise explored.

There are pictures of 81 doors in the book.  I did my best to find all of them, but we only had time to find 19 of the doors. Greg thought we did a good job finding the doors. I considered it just a start. We have to go back to Florence to find the rest of the doors.  Greg rests when he can….

We rubbed noses with the boar in the Mercato Nuovo market.  Rubbing noses with the boar is supposed to bring good luck. Maybe Greg was trying to find enough luck to make it through this vacation.

We ate at a restaurant called Garga.  This restaurant was recommended to us by one of the “high finance” ladies on the bike trip. She told me that the chef would come out and talk to us, and that we should tell him she recommended the restaurant to us. The chef must have been busy that night, because he did not come to our table. We also have never been featured on a high finance show on Youtube.

I don’t remember if it was at this restaurant or not, but at one of our meals, my oldest daughter, Ally, ordered cow’s tongue.  Cow’s tongue? A tongue that has been in a cow? I would be kind of grossed out if a living cow licked me.  No way am I going to eat a dead cow’s tongue.  Ally said it was really tender. Ew. That made it sound worse.  My daughter, Sarah, decided she would be brave enough to try a bite.  As she started to take a bite, I leaned over to her and made a loud, slurping sound. She put her fork down and could not take a bite.  I know I could have acted more maturely, but a tongue?  

We could have stayed in Florence for several more days.  Everyone loved it.  But we had a schedule.  We were due in Cinque Terre.  We took the train to La Spezia, stopping on the way to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Most of us took the wet, slippery, steep stairs to the top.

At the end of our visit, we parted ways with Vicki.  She was going to Venice, while we were heading to La Spezia and Cinque Terre. 

Please be sure to read my story next time about our visit to La Spezia and Cinque Terre.

Tips:

1. You can book tickets for the Academia Gallery at www.galleriaacademiafirenze.it.
2. You can book tickets for the Uffizi Gallery at http://www.uffizi.it/en/tickets.
3. Rubbing noses with a public boar seems a little unwise, considering we had all just been through the pandemic.  I’m kind of surprised we all did it, but we survived.
4. Make sure you turn on the light when entering an unfamiliar apartment to avoid face planting on the stairs.
5. You can buy tickets for the Leaning Tower of Pisa at www.opapisa.it.
6. I highly recommend the book Wine Doors of Florence by Robbin Gheesling.  It was really fun looking for the doors while exploring the city.  And if you don’t find them all on your first trip, you will have a great excuse for going back. 
7. Cow tongue, or any other tongue, should not be considered food, in my opinion.
8. For a good meal, check out Trattoria Garga.  The address is Via del Moro 48/R, Florence, Italy.  The phone number is +39 055 239 8898. The website is www.casatrattoria.com.