Obligatory Gelato Post

Before I went to Italy, I promised myself that I would try to have gelato at least once a day every day without repeating flavors. For some of you that are friends with me on Facebook, you’ll know I have a separate album dedicated solely to gelato. I thought I would dedicate a post on my blog to the different gelato I had on my trip to Italy. In the span of 8 days, I had gelato exactly 10 times. I tried to take the pictures close to famous landmarks so it would seem more memorable. Click on the pictures to see it close-up and read what flavors they are! 🙂 The only place I remembered to record was the last one I had (That’s in my Pisa post).

Favorite: Kiwi Granita in Pisa. (Not really gelato, but it was that good.) The chocolate and Nutella I had in Rome comes in close second.

Least Favorite: Chocolate from Florence. (It was icy, which probably meant it was old.)

 

Tiramisu&mint choco; Venice, Italy (St. Marco’s Square)

Strawberry that tasted exactly like mushed up strawberries so delish; Venice, Italy

Salted caramel; Venice, Italy

Rose; Vatican City

The BEST chocolate&Nutella; Rome, Italy (Gelateria/restaurant literally across from the Spanish Steps)

Kiwi&peach&pineapple; Rome, Italy (The gelateria is located exactly where my position in the picture indicates; Pantheon)

Chocolate; Florence, Italy (Palazzo Vecchio)

Pistachio; Florence, Italy

Tahiti vanilla&bourbon chocolate; Pisa, Italy

The BEST kiwi granita; Pisa, Italy

Art, Art, and More Art

Halls of the Uffizi

We began our next day in Florence early, hoping we could brush off the events of the previous day. Our day began at the Uffizi gallery as soon as it opened at 9:00 am. If you plan on going to see the Uffizi, morning time as soon as it opens is the best time to go. We didn’t have to wait in line at all for tickets and security check in. We made a beeline straight for the famous Birth of Venus and Primavera by Botticelli first, and we shared it with about 6 other people. It was fantastic. The paintings I had seen only in books and movies were right in front of me. I then wandered through the different galleries guided by Rick Steves’ audio tour. It was definitely a plus to go early. Also, a forewarning, when you see a sign that says exit on the top floor, it actually takes you down to a whole other floor of art before you actually get to exit. Overall, we spent about a good 2 ½-3 hours in the gallery, which was plenty of time for us.

Birth of Venus

Primavera

Venus

Bust of Socrates (?)

Ponte Vecchio as seen from the Uffizi

Sleeping Arianne

Doni Tondo – Michaelangelo

Venus of Urbino – Titian

After we exited the building, we went around looking for some food and ran into a restaurant, which was famous for its Panini. We decided to give it a try as it seemed to have a lot of awards. All 7 of us squeezed into the tiny restaurant and I decided to be daring and order a gorgonzola and walnut bruschetta as well as a tripe Panini. The bruschetta was too…cheesy. Usually, I have gorgonzola cheese in a salad with walnuts and apples. But the cheese by itself without anything sweet to balance it out was a bit overwhelming for me. (My friend had a gorgonzola and pear risotto, which sounded better than it tasted. Koreans don’t do well with heavy food).

Meh.

I was also very disappointed by my choice in panini because I thought tripe would be more meaty rather than rubbery, and it was just too salty. My friend loved it though. After that day, I learned that I’m not really adventurous after all. The tiramisu was on point though. Good ol’ dessert. I could’ve eaten a whole pan of that thing.

YESSSS

Duomo

After our meal, we decided to explore the Duomo. After looking around for a bit, we sat on a bench inside and just people watched. It was very relaxing and also interesting to see people from all over the world.

Duomo

Candles inside the Duomo

Murals inside

Interesting clock

Bell Tower

Unfortunately, we didn’t want to pay the 10 euros to climb the bell tower, and we made our way to our next destination, the market next to the Medici chapel. If you are looking for a open air market to bargain for all sorts of goods, go to the market adjacent the Medici chapel. It was a lot of fun and I bought a couple of things for myself and my family.

The last thing on our agenda was going to the Academia to see Michaelangelo’s David. A word of advice for those who want to see David, go right before the Accademia closes at 6:30 pm. We went around 5-5:30 pm, and there was virtually no crowd. (We all got pictures with David without other people in it.) An hour to two hours is plenty of time to see the Accademia.

David was actually quite larger than I expected him to be. He commands your attention, standing majestically at the center of a dome that was specifically constructed for him. I sat for a while listening to Rick Steves describe David and offer some interesting information about his history. (I had no idea a crazy person actually attacked David and damaged his feet!). After we finished gawking at this masterpiece, we took a quick look around the rest of the Accademia and bought some Cannoli (too sweet for my liking) to have with our hot chocolate back at our Airbnb.

Street artists in Florence

Rape of Sabine

A “Fine” Way to Start our Time in Florence

We began the next day in high spirits. We got to sleep in and we took our time getting to the train station to go to Florence. We happily boarded our train, eager to experience the cultural wonder that is Florence. When we arrived, following the directions of our Airbnb host, we boarded the tram in front of the Santa Maria Novella train station and then met her at the designated stop. She then advised us to take a bus and meet her 3 stops later.

A little background before I tell you about our little mishap: Buying tickets for public transportation varies depending on the city and mode. After you buy a ticket, it must always be validated. In Venice, we found out that we had to buy our tickets in advance at a tobacco shop before riding the bus. In Rome, it was a mix: metro tickets could be bought at an automated machine when we entered the metro, and buses varied.

To be fair, we honestly did not know what the ticket situation was in Florence, but we didn’t really bother finding out either. As soon as we entered the bus, two gentlemen began going around asking to check tickets. I was sitting towards the back and didn’t really know what was going on, but after I saw the faces of my friends who were sitting towards the front and were the first victims, I knew we were in trouble. All of us ended up getting off the bus a stop early, and we each had to pay a 50 euro fine on the spot for not having a ticket. A word of advice: buy a ticket. It’ll be a one in a million chance that you’ll be on a public mode of transportation where they check, but when they do, you’ll be thankful that you didn’t risk it. Also, when they do ask to check, make sure you ask them to see there badges first because it could be a scam. (A girl I met and had talked to lived in Florence for 3 years, and she said that she always had them mail her ticket to the US, but they never did because they were so lazy.)It was pretty funny because one of the Italian ladies on the bus kept motioning to us in the back to get off early because the men apparently didn’t know we were all together in one group, so at least half of us could have avoided the fine.

After that, Florence pretty much became the worst city on the trip for everyone. The rest of the day was spent sulking in our Airbnb and going out to the supermarket to buy food.