Friday, November 10, 2017

Italy 1




We planned a trip to Florence in May for a wedding which (happily, now) didn't happen. When I mentioned the trip to a friend, she pointed me to Coral at Curious Appetite for food tours. I emailed Coral about tours and mentioned off-hand that I didn't know where to begin to plan an itinerary. She replied that she could create an overall itinerary for us - we spent an hour in a phone interview during which she asked me about our trip goals, our desired pace of sightseeing, must-see/must-do activities.   She provided me with a day by day sketch including lodging, tours, and dining recommendations (400 euro - well worth it!) We took food tours in Florence and in Bologna.

These are all photos Luke took with The Good Camera (Italy 1 and 2). There are so many I procrastinated about writing this post. Now six months later, I don't remember the names of the streets or many of the small, unGoogleable restaurants but it doesn't matter.

Day by day and night by night we were together,—All else has long been forgotten by me;

What remains is a feeling of romance, of chill - a little rain - warm sunshine, of heaps of prosciutto and melon, of radioactive-orange spritzers.







Palazzo Pitti.













The Arno.












Piazzale Michelangelo.










Our hotel.










Hotel terrace with twenty year old barman Federico who describes things he liked as "for me, it's perfect", touching his hand to his chest.





























































La Specola - a trip highlight. We've started beginning trips with a hop-on, hop-off bus tour to get the lay of the land. Barreling down the Via Romana the tour guide said "children love these taxidermied animals - and the anatomy exhibits!" This wasn't on our itinerary and I had a done a pitiful amount of pre-trip research (none) and I had not heard about this museum. I knew I would see the David and magnificent buildings and eat gelato but I was not expecting this wondrous place - making it even more spectacular. Also helped that it was basically free and unlike everywhere else, we had it almost to ourselves.









Boboli Gardens.

















































Palazzo Pitti at the entrance to Boboli Gardens.










La Specola.











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