So somewhere along the line Lilly and I should have failed elementary school math because her iPad was set for Florida time and we wanted to wake up at 645 to have time to get ready and have espresso at the train station before getting on our train. So there is a 6 hour time difference right? Well we decided that 645 am minus a 6 hour time difference clearly meant set the alarm for 145 am. If you passed elementary school math then you should notice right about now that the math doesn't add up and that the alarm would instead go off at 745am in Milan . Yup. Luckily we had packed mostly last night because I think we were out of the room in 5 minutes and walking into the train station at 755. We asked a lady for help where our train was since we didn't see it on the board and then quickly hopped on platform 15 and onto our train. 15 minutes to spare! Lol it's an adventure .
We got to the station just fine and then using the directions on our hostel reservation we were able to find it quite easily. We put our things in the storage room there and then set off on our adventure for the day. We asked the receptionist for directions to the galleria degli Uffizi (super famous museum) and figured a stop at the Piazza Duomo would be in order. We followed the directions given and ended up at the train station...aka the complete wrong way...but we got help and slowly made our way around Florence . We went to th church of Santa Maria Novella which was gorgeous and famous for the symmetric architecture. Then we headed towards the Piazza Duomo. We may have made a wrong turn or two but we found it in the end. It was so huge! That is one of florence's oldest buildings and quite impressive. Even more impressive than the church was the museum for it...which had Michaelangelo's Pieta.
It was so amazing seeing it!! The museum was a hidden gem, not too many people were there and it was really nice and clean and had some cool sculptures and paintings. We the. Headoed to lunch which we meant to get gelato but stopped by a small cafe because of these huge dessert type things in the display. We went back and asked and the man said it was a meringue. We had to have one! We got a meringue with chocolate drizzle and to cafe macchiato's for lunch. We couldn't even finish the meringue. It was so sweet but delicious and crunchy on the outside but almost like marshmallow consistency in the inside. We were full and continued on. O th e way we passed by the Church of Orsanmichele which was done in the gothic style and very old. A beautiful alter with gold and a beautiful painiting from the 1300s I think, no pictures allowed though. And then finally the Uffizi!! We didn't have reservations for tickets so we got in a long line after the Plaza of Statues (where the replica of David is) and were going to wait but the family in front of us found this deal where you sign up for a museum club thing and you get free tickets to the Uffizi. It's 20euro for the club and 15euro for the museum anyways so we decided to join the club. The extra 5 euro was worth it because we skipped right past a 2 hour line basically. The museum was almost overwhelming...there was so much art!! We saw a lot of famous art, the kind in history and humanities book...and we saw.
The Birth of Venus.
Pictures are NOT allowed...I tried to be sneaky
Omg Lilly and I got goosebumps. We went back to see it three times we were just so in awe...I would list all the beautiful famous things we saw but it would take too much lol. It was just awesome , we spent over two hours there and that was because we didn't stop at a lot of works if we didn't really know the artist very well. It was kind of like the London National Gallery museum for me. So amazing. Then we decided to try and find the restaurant that lilly's cousin was super insisstant that we go to, il Cibreo.
I was able to find it and we found out it didn't open till 650 and we didn't need reservations for the trattoria, just the restaurant , and they had the exact same menu and price so the trattoria was the perfect choice. We had 30minutes to kill so we walked around the market and bought some comfy pants we have seen so many people wearing! We finally found them after two days of looking and it was completely by chance! Yay. Then back to the restaurant, we were the first ones there. The waiter was so helpful, he went through the whole menu with us in English and told me what did and didn't have gluten. The menu was hand written because it changes with the seasons and what's fresh . Awesome. Lilly and I both had the ricotta and potato flan for our first course.
It was the consistency of whipped cream cheese but shaped like a log of tofu and had fresh Parmesan and olive oil and also an incredible basil pesto, the waiter put a bit of each on my fork to show me how to eat it. It was amazing. The ricotta was so smooth and the flavors went so perfectly together. Oh I can't even describe it! Then for my main course I had beef cheek in a tomato sauce with rosemary and some other herbs etc. It practically melted in my mouth it was so tender!
The waiter recommended it and said it was a very traditional dish for Florence ...i figured I couldn't go wrong! And finally for dessert I had a flour less chocolate cake.
It was very very good and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, I think I was a little disappointed after how amazing dinner had been and how different from what I normally eat. Anywhere else it would have been perfect but I almost expected beyond perfect by the time dessert came! All the same, an incredible meal that her cousin paid for us,def the most expensive meal of my euro trip for sure. It was easy to find our way back to the hotel after dinner and now off to bed so we can go for a run in the morning and then Pisa for the day!
