Wednesday, September 5th

The next leg of our journey, traveling from Bologna to Florence, was by train. With all our luggage we walked the half mile to the train station, which felt like so much. Add to it that our platform was furthest from the entrance; all the adults were quite beat by the time we got onto the train.

Dom loved the train ride and the 30 min trip gave us a bit of time to rest before walking to our apartment in Florence. There had been a misunderstanding about our check-in time so we had a few hours to kill. We walked through the Piazza Duomo and found a restaurant with outside seating and space for all our bags near us. Several rounds of drinks later, after Dom had walked around the block a few times, we were finally able to check-in.

The apartment was located only a few blocks from the Duomo and very beautiful, with wood beams, exposed brick walls, and decorative tiles. After settling in and Dom took a nap, we went back out in search of dinner. Dom loved running along the narrow streets, tested out his side-ways walking, and had a great time exploring. We found a restaurant with outside seating and some very yummy truffle pasta. After buying some of the locally made Limoncello, we returned to the apartment for the night.

Thursday, September 6th

This was Dom’s day playing with Miss Sarah, while mom and dad took a food tour and visited the Uffizi Gallery. The walking food tour took us to a dozen different stops within a mile or so of the apartment. The first stop was for a Shakerato (shaken iced coffee) at Rivoire a restaurant in the Piazza della Signoria. From there we stopped into Santi Apostoli Church then sampled some olive oil and Balsamic vinegar in the shop next door.  Next was a glass of wine and tiny truffle sandwich, followed by a decorative coffee, and then a fried bread, tomato and mozzarella sandwich. Then we sampled more wine on our way to the Central Market. Chris sampled the boiled beef sandwich at the market and our guide pointed out lots of local specialties. One vendor let us sample a fennel salami that was so soft it melted in your mouth, but Chris was too stuffed to try the lard and truffle sandwich at the Savini Tartufi stall. It was very rich and salty; definitely something you only eat one. Our last stop with the guide was another wine shop near our apartment – we actually passed Dom and Miss Sarah on our way there – where we had a wine tasting with a cheese tray.

Aside from the really yummy food and wine, my favorite part of the tour was all the street art we saw. There were so many different styles and it was often more creative than random spray painted tags. We returned to our apartment stuffed and ready to rest our feet for a bit before we went back out to the Uffizi Gallery.  It was busy, but worth the visit to see some remarkable painting in person, including; Birth of Venus, Madonna of the Long Neck, Venus of Urbino, and several Michelangelo pieces.

After seeing everything I could, we went back to the apartment. It had been a long day so we picked up some groceries and Chris made us dinner in.

Friday, September 5th:

After the busy day prior, we took our last day in Florence slow. Miss Sarah was off exploring the city with her friends and Dom wanted “no out.” We ate in, read books and when Dom took is nap I went out to walk the street a bit on my own. I continued to be blown away by the Duomo, I walked around the outside of the whole building and tried to catch a glimpse of the Baptistry doors. From there I wandered in the Orsanmichele, which was beautiful, and stopped in a few paper shops before getting back to the apartment. It is definitely a city I wish we had more time in.

After Dom woke up from his nap, we got smoothies across the street from our apartment and walked to the Santa Maria Novella. We walked around the inner court yard – skipping the interior – which was going fine until Dom decided to run across the roped off courtyard / burial ground. Once we retrieved him, we wandered through the streets to the Arno river, crossing back and forth over until we found our way to the truffle restaurant our tour guide recommended.

We took a seat with a  view of the street, ordered prosecco and several different great truffle pasta dishes. Dom had no problem eating all the truffle spread, but quickly lost interest in watching people walk by. After a meltdown, some knocked-over decorations, and a few falls, he was in his stroller and we were walking to Point Vecchio.  Most of the stores had closed up for the night, but the sun was setting making the view out over the river beautiful. From the bridge we returned to the apartment to pack up for our departure the next morning.