Since we were out all night and did a lot that day, me and my friend overslept. We woke up around 10am and knew we kind of screwed up if we wanted to go to the museums. We still weren’t sure which one we were going to: the Uffizzi Galleria, or the Galleria dell’Accademia. We still had to drive into Florence so we figured we’ll decide once we find parking.
Walking into the crowd, I mentioned to my friend that since it was getting close to siesta time, the line wouldn’t be so long wherever we go. We settled on Uffizzi since we were closer to that one again. We practically walked up front when we stopped. The line was down the street around the corner. A tour guide was letting us know that there are tours where you can skip the line, but of course, it costs a lot more. We were stuck. We were sluggish from being out all night, and we did not want to wait in that line. The other setback was that if we sign up with the skip-the-line tour, it would last 2 hours. Hence, we’re back to spending 2 hours in the museum regardless. My friend was hesitant, but I decided to foot the cost because I really wanted to experience this. She agreed and we got very lucky with a tour starting right at that moment. The tour guide showed us to our group and we put on our headphones. We followed him around with a small group of 10. He was going to show us the evolution of art through the ages presented in this museum. I enjoyed the tour very much since it gave us a perspective on how other artists influenced each other. Of course, the Boticelli room was amazing!! People couldn’t stop taking pictures of his masterpieces.
When we finally finished the tour, I bought my gallery book as a souvenir. This is something I started doing for myself on my trabels, (although technically I’m missing the book from the Louve museum because I was too tired to carry it back to my hotel).
Afterwards, we knew that siesta was over, and that the restaurants that are opened would be a little emptier. We found La Bussola ristorante pizzeria nearby. I told my friend that I wanted to have pizza for lunch and gelato for dinner. Lol. This worked out perfectly! I ordered a Margarita pizza since it was more tomato based. I had cheese and prosciutto again for breakfast, and was craving tomato sauce really bad. My friend decided on a Tuscan pizza instead which included cheese baked into the bread. She loved hers as well.
We ate like queens and decided to walk around and shop. My friend found a salon that could do manicures, so while they took care of her, I sipped on their complimentary coffee and took advantage of their wifi.
We checked out some interesting shops afterwards. We ended up at the higher end retailers, but we couldn’t help but admire the stores. We spent the rest of the day looking around for goodies. Once it got later, we still had to find some gelato to check off my list. By this time, both our phones had died out. Luckily, we ended up finding Perche no! which I would definitely recommend. It was delish!
As we were walking back to the car to charge our phones, we found the famous boar statue our tour guide had mentioned earlier. This boar specifically ate truffles, which has been the number one consumer goods imported from Italy. Legend says you have to drop coins in his mouth and rub his snout. Hopefully it will bring me good luck! Lol
We went back to the car to charge up our phones for a bit. We wanted to have one last drink out and head back to the house so we could say our goodbyes to the couple who were hosting us. We had seen a nice restaurant earlier while we were walking around and ended up there for drinks. I will miss my friend. My flight was leaving at 6:35 in the morning, which meant we had to be at the airport no later than 5:30am. That to me was cutting it close, but she reassured me that I should be fine.
On our way back to the car again (this time to head home) we ran into the iconic Arno river. We decided to take one last photo together, but were having a hard time finding that perfect shot. An Italian man noticed our struggle and offered to take the shot for us. He was very nice. We chatted for a bit about the history of the infamous Gold Bridge and how many of the buildings surrounding it were destroyed during WW2. He knew so much, I wish we had met him earlier. We exchanged info off facebook and hopefully our paths will cross again. I loved his energy! He was a very passionate, happy, proud Italian who love sharing the history of his country. I love that…
We came home and said our goodbyes to the lovely couple who had waited for us. I couldn’t help but tear up a bit while I was packing my belongings. This trip had surpassed my expectations, mostly because I did not know what to expect. The sense of clarity it brought me had calmed my nerves. There are good people in the world. Sometimes you just have to look for them…
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