I am oddly obsessed with being Italian. Maybe it's not so odd. I've noticed that other people of Italian descent who live in the US are also oddly obsessed with being Italian. It may be in our blood to have this somewhat unfounded, brooding pride. There's no fighting it.
In September of last year I got the chance to immerse myself in my Italian heritage again. I decided to bring along the hubs as well. He's Italian too after all.
This trip was different than two years ago when I planned everything independently. This time I snagged a deal on Groupon Getaways that included airfare, 6 days of a hotel in Montecatini-Terme and one night in Milan as well as 7 days of a car rental. It ended up savings us about $1,000 if not more. It was pretty annoying to not have the ability to modify certain aspects of our trip but in the end the savings outweighed any tinkering I wanted to do.
This trip started off with quite the cluster-f. First of all I caught a nasty cold 3 days before we left. Steven immediately started downing Airborne pills to avoid catching it too. By the time we took off, I was still sick and holding onto my Afrin like an addict. We got from RDU to JFK without much issue but once we got to the counter to check in for our AirItalia flight we got thrown for a loop. Their computer system was down...in Rome...which caused the systems all over the world to just quit. So that flight to Rome? Delayed 3 hrs. All I could think was, "not again". All Steven could think was "can we get a refund and go home". In the end we got onto our delayed flight and made it to Rome safely. Unfortunately the plane was old and almost none of the inflight entertainment worked. I'm going to add AirItalia to the "never going to fly again" list.
Getting our car in Milan was easy enough because we'd already gone through the trouble of getting our international driving permits. Getting out of the airport was another story. Roundabouts...everywhere. Somehow we managed to find signs that said "Autostrade" and just kept following them. So after hours of traveling and no sleep I got the esteemed pleasure of driving 3 hours to Montecatini-Terme in a country I didn't know, in a car I've never driven before with road signs I could hardly read. It was a friggin blast! That little Panda could get it! I couldn't believe how easily the traffic moved in Italy. The left lane was purely for passing and it was kept sacred and holy. It was amazing.
Somehow we managed to make it to Montecatini-Terme and by the grace of God we managed to find our hotel (googlemaps fails in Italy, just an FYI).
Day 1 was Florence and luckily the train station was just down the street from our hotel. I already had a reservation at the Accademia to see David and we were eager to get in line. Unfortunately about 15 mins before the train was due I realized I'd left the reservation confirmation print out back at the hotel. Steven and I have never run so fast...we got the tickets and got back to the platform with 30 seconds to spare. It was quite the accomplishment.
Ok enough of my yammering. Pictures!!
One of the first things you come across in Florence is the Duomo. It's hard to miss. It is the most impressively massive building who's shadow I've had the pleasure of basking in. It's also beautifully colorful! The greens and pale pinks...that's marble. That was specifically chosen, colorful marble. I was in awe.
Later in the day we would be climbing that dome. (The above picture was taken when we were high in the hills of Florence in a fort.)
After snagging our first delicious espresso in a tiny cafe, we managed to find the Accademia with plenty of time to make our reservation. It's funny...we actually thought that with a reservation we wouldn't be waiting in line to get inside. Oh we were greatly mistaken. In fact there were 3 lines. One for general admission, that one was massive and moving the slowest, one for groups, a good bit smaller but not moving fast at all and then a line for reservations which was massive but moving the quickest. Thank. God. While I was verifying that we were in the correct line Steven, being the social butterfly he is, met another couple vacationing in Italy who were about our age. They were from Boston and were in Italy for the first time. We ended up sticking together through the Accademia and chatting their ear off about everything we learned from our previous trip to Italy.
The first couple rooms of the Accademia were filled with lovely paintings and a couple sculptures but nothing compared to David.
I kept making jokes about wanting to see the "tiny weenis" and otherwise making light of how popular David is but once I saw him I was dumbfounded. He is amazing. I've never seen marble so smooth before and I doubt I will again. From the cavity carved around the stone in his hand to how velvety his hair looked, David is a true masterpiece. I did find it somewhat funny though that he's portraying a jewish biblical character but has a roman nose and is uncircumcised. After a while of oogling at him we moved on and said goodbye to our new friends to go climb Brunelleschi's Dome.
Which had yet another line.
We'd lucked out quite a lot on this trip already. Finding the autostrade, finding the hotel, a helpful tourists told us where to check in for our appointment at the Accademia and now while waiting in line for the dome another helpful tourists told us how to find the ticket office for the dome...which was not very obvious. Steven returned from purchasing two tickets just in time for us to be let in.
We climbed and we climbed and we climbed.
The cement stairs turned to marble and the higher we climbed the smaller the city became. At one point you left the interior walls and walked around the interior of the dome to access the next set of stairs. Steven likes to point out this is when I started freaking out. That could be true considering I had a death grip on the railing and wouldn't look down. It really started getting trippy when the stairs started curving.
The platform you step out on is solid marble with an iron railing protecting you from certain death. I was relatively calm considering how high we were. I think that was because the platform didn't sway at all like I was used to towers doing. It was solid and I felt safe enough to go to the end and look down. Looking around at the city so far bellow was breathtaking. Literally and figuratively.
Master photographer - Steven.
The climb down was much faster and way less scary.
Our next stop was the Boboli Gardens but the storms from the previous week had caused enough damage for them to close them temporarily. Just our luck. So instead we wandered around Florence and snapped pictures of what we saw.
Like a street named after Steven's family!
The famous Ponte Vecchio.
And the incredibly illusive empty street!
The city center of Florence was pretty flat but once you crossed the Ponte Vecchio bridge it started getting steep. Very steep.
These steep roads led to a fort on the hillside of Florence. From its grounds, we got the best view (including that photo of the duomo from afar).
Before catching the last train back to Montecatini-Terme, we shopped for a leather wallet for Steven in the leather market and haggled for a universal plug adapter for our phone chargers (yep definitely forgot that).
We stumbled upon one of the most delicious meals that night at La Pecora Nera (http://www.ercoliniesavi.it/it/la-pecora-nera) and went to bed fat and happy. Well, except I was still stuffed up beyond belief.
Already this trip was turning out better than the last!
Liz
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