firenze

it was late afternoon by the time our train pulled into stazione di santa maria novella. our hostel was a strange little place on via faenza, tucked away behind a leafy courtyard and run by an elderly man who spoke little english. dusk was falling by the time we went back outside to walk around and have dinner. 

this country will never not amaze me. it felt good to be back.

food in italy holds a lot of memories for me, spanning a lot of years. being three years old and nearly falling asleep at the table as my extended family spent hours talking over pasta and wine in a tuscan villa. age 11, eating quattro formaggi pizza on a side street of the  tiny walled town of todi. comparing the cinnamon gelato in every small umbrian town (conclusion: the best one by far was in orvieto.) in rome, eating the best pasta cacio e pepe at a hole in the wall neighbourhood joint in trastevere with my family. last year, ducking into a random coffee shop in florence with georgie to escape the rain and snag some free wifi, and having the best, molten, eat-it-with-a-spoon hot chocolate that dreams are made of. i believe that food can quite often be a window into a country and its culture, and i'd be lying if i said we didn't totally eat our way through florence last month. 

for our first dinner, we headed to gusta pizza, which had been recommended by multiple friends and family. judging by the after photo, i'd say we liked it pretty well. 

afterwards, we walked around the city for a bit, getting the classic nighttime view of the ponte vecchio, and then making a very necessary stop at la carraia for gelato. teddy had taken me there last year when i visited him in florence and their biscottino, or cookie flavour, was unforgettable. marit and tamar and i discovered during our 4 days in florence that la carraia was not only the best but also the cheapest gelateria in the city... obviously all of our extensive research was for Science. 

la carraia gang or die

then we went to bed, aiming to get an early start exploring the city the next day. thursday morning, we got up early and made the 5-minute walk over to mercato di san lorenzo. 

we spent a while wandering around the food stands inside the mercato centrale. 

getting cappuccinos at the mercato became our budget breakfast tradition: 1.50 euros for a work of foam art and delicious coffee that held us over until lunch. 

then we worked our way toward the other side of the arno river, passing the duomo, and stopping for some scenic photos as we walked across ponte santa trinita. 

finally, we made it to our destination: the giardini di boboli at the palazzo pitti. somehow we managed to skirt past the ticket booth and got in for free as opposed to the usual steep, several-euro price. not sure how that happened, but happy it did. 

the gardens were gorgeous. 

picnicking on bread and mozzarella from the mercato.

in mid-afternoon it was (surprise, surprise) back to la carraia for some more gelato, which we ate whilst sitting on the edge of the ponte carraia in the sunshine.

fior di latte + dark chocolate

we wandered around some more. actually, i'm pretty sure all we do when we travel is wander around.

that night, we were out late enough to hit up a secret bakery. even with some vague directions to one of them courtesy of teddy, and some equally vague directions from the internet (shh), we were pretty proud to have found it. it was may day, a civic holiday, so the streets were pretty empty-- two nights later we went back to the same bakery and it was overrun with people. but this night, the first night, it was deserted and we almost missed it. 

will we ever find this secret bakery in a strange deserted alley in the middle of the night? stay tuned...

nighttime views along the way.

uh yum

we found it!

happy happy happy

 we returned to mercato centrale friday morning for cappuccinos as well, and then wandered around in the drizzly weather until lunchtime, when we headed to osteria il buongustai, a cheap restaurant we'd read about online when searching for a good pasta place. it was packed and took forever to get a table, but it was so, so good. 

after lunch, we headed over to the uffizi for some Culture and Art. waiting in line took a loooong time (at least we got to wait under an overhang- it was thundering outside!) but it was worth it to see such an incredible collection. and the building itself was phenomenal! below, a picture of the ceiling:

it was late afternoon and still a torrential rainstorm when we finished at the museum. nevertheless, we had heard from several people that piazzale michaelangelo was a must-see view, albeit a bit of a long walk, so we put on our rain jackets and braved the downpour. half an hour later, soaking wet and blinking water out of our eyes, we were treated to what was indeed the best view of florence. i took a ton of pictures, and would've taken many more if i hadn't been worried about my camera obtaining water damage!

freezing and hungry, we still somehow had a craving for gelato, so we made a pit stop at the tiny gelateria nearby, where i found mela verde gelato, a flavour that has a high standing in my childhood memory and that i'd been searching for in vain for the past 2 days. 

gross and miserable but somehow deliriously happy

then it was back across town to warm up with a piping hot pizza at gusta.

the next morning, we grabbed brunch at volume, a coffee shop/bar in piazza santo spirito, before catching a bus to siena for the day! i had briefly visited siena for about 4 hours last year, so it was exciting to go back and have time to really see the town. 

the synagogue of siena

the museo civico was fascinating, and the roof of the building afforded us a panoramic view of the tuscan countryside. 

in the late afternoon, we returned to florence for vegan paninis and a few rare hours of downtime relaxing at our hostel. that night, we stayed out late enough again for it to be... drumroll please.... secret bakery time! they don't start making these pastries until around 1:00 a.m. and don't start selling them until even later. when we arrived at our bakery, it was surrounded with a herd of study-abroaders, and the visibly overwhelmed and irritated bakery employees told everyone that there were no pastries for sale that night- sorry, try again tomorrow. once the alley emptied out, we sidled up to the bakery and made friends with the (entirely latin@) bakery staff, who whispered to us in spanish that we should come back in half an hour.

killing time in front of the accademia

only half an hour to go!

very ready to get our hands on some crêpes and croissants right about now

finally, we returned and got our pastries, hurray!

madonna & child 

sunday morning, we packed up to leave, but not without taking one last trip across the river for coffee at volume in oltrarno and then hitting up la carraia- literally the minute it opened at 11 a.m.- for a last otherworldly cup of biscottino gelato. 

italy, in all of its absurdities, incongruities, frustratingly nonsensical red tape, and lack of punctuality, will always feel so comfortably familiar to me, because when i think about the country, i don't think about all of those things. instead, what i think about is the view of the duomo di firenze in a dusk rainstorm from the top of a hill, the rich aroma of a good espresso in a tiny coffeehouse, the feel of cobblestones under tired feet. the tuscan olive trees. the awe of standing below a magnificent fresco or standing above ancient roman ruins. 

and i think of the first spoonful of the final cup of biscottino gelato, eaten on the walk back across the bridge to our hostel before heading to the train station to leave florence. we had more adventures and  countries and cities ahead of us, all immensely exciting. but in that one moment, eating gelato and chatting and walking through the sunny streets, it was hard to imagine wanting to be anywhere else besides where i was right then. 

x

M