Falling for Italy Part 2: Flying through Florence

Back for round two, finally!

You know, Florence was the city that I expected the least of. I realized that I had absolutely no idea what was IN Florence except for great food and ended up Googling a Time Out article to tell myself. As it turns out, Florence is a great place to be if you like food AND art. And boy does my group like art.

One of the first galleries that we went to was the Uffizi Gallery. We went in having no expectations except for FLORENCE ART and it ended up totally worth it. Why? Because we turned the corner into one room and BAM The Birth of Venus was just RIGHT THERE. Casually. Like no big deal. It was amazing. We had no idea just how many pieces straight from art history textbooks were there. We were literally tired of art by the end.

We did of course hit up the tourist-must-dos. I have a picture of the Duomo up there, and then we also wandered over the Ponte Vecchio a couple of times. Honestly, both areas were both so touristy we weren’t there long.

One of the best things we did (possibly in the whole trip) was go on a wine tour up in Chianti. We stopped by the town of Greve and then went to two little wineries and tried a LOT of wine. Just the bus ride to and from these places were picture worthy, but looking out over the grape fields was also amazing. The mist was setting in and the sun was going down and UGH. It was like a postcard. We also just had a lot of fun as a whole–and came back with a lot of wine that was cheap and good. (Greve also had the best gelato we would have all trip.)

The one thing that we said we were going to do in Florence from the beginning was go to the Galleria d’ell Academia and see Michelangelo’s David. Quite frankly, I wasn’t as excited about that as some other people. I mean, he’s just a nude dude, right? But standing up close to him … it was amazing. Just the hand. The detailing of the veins in the hand. HOW is someone that talented? HOW? As I said before, there is nothing that can prepare you for seeing a bunch of things up close, whether it’s the Coliseum or David or anything in between.

Did you miss my recap of part 1 in Rome? Here’s the link! Stay tuned for the final part about Venice!

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