Day 2 in Florence was all about exploring the city on our own. But first, the Uffizi. Let me just say, this had to be hands down the most overwhelming art experience I've ever had. When you realize that the oldest piece of art in the Uffizi collect dates back to 1200 BC, well you just can't fathom life at that time.
By the way, this is the oldest piece in the collection. It is entitled "432 Cross" and it is by an unknown artist.
The amount of religious-themed art in the collection is also something I did not anticipate. The one thing I noticed throughout the paintings over several hundred years was that baby Jesus was virtually depicted the same way. His head - in almost every painting - was cone-shaped, versus round. An odd thing to pick up, but it was noticeable. Here are more pieces in their collection.
Also, everywhere you looked there was art. The paintings on the ceiling are outstanding.
And you can't miss the view of Florence from inside the Gallery.
Here's more of what we saw:
The views from outside were not bad either.
How these pieces survived thousands of years, war, natural disasters, and more blows my mind.
On the way out of the gallery there was a modern art section and the contrast between what we had observed through most of the gallery and these pieces was mind blowing.
After the museum we headed to lunch as a place recommended to me by a former colleague. And it did not disappoint.
We once again had Ribollita, the vegetable bread soup, and this was even better than the one we had the day before.
While we did not have the Florentine steak, many around us did and it look (and smelled) delicious.
This lamb pappardelle was outstanding.
The tortellini in broth was good (not complaining), but it could not compete with the pappardelle.
And this Tiramisu...there are no words. I will never eat this in America again.
This place was packed. We happened to be seated next to a couple from Florence. However they were on holiday because they currently lived in Singapore where one of them was a professor at the University there. We shared wine, they made some recommendations, and they confirmed for us that my colleague did not steer us wrong in terms of the food recommendations. In fact, the gentleman told us he had been coming to this restaurant for 50 years and the one constant was the quality. He said the quality of the food has never changed. Well, we loved it and it was the best food experience we had in Europe.
After lunch, we stopped in a few shops and headed back to our hotel for a small break before heading out again to find a wine window. Yes, you heard that right. A wine window. You knock on the window, someone comes to the window to take your order and a minute or two later, you have wine. We found the most famous wine window in the city (by accident) and loved it. Rachel didn't love the wine (she is the wine snob), but I loved my Limoncello Spritz.
This experience was also a community experience. You have to finish your drink in front of the wine window (can't walk with it), so we got to know the people there. We met an American from New Jersey who was staying in Florence for a few months to see if he wanted to live there permanently (he had family in Florence). We also watched a couple of professional "influencers" film their entire experience and provide "color commentary" for their viewers. This was a lot of fun!
But, we had more to do and things to see.
One more brief stop at the hotel and then for a wine nightcap. We'd have an early morning flight, so we didn't want to be out late and we'd already had quite a filling lunch. Rachel stumbled upon this place on her early morning run, and we'd passed it many times (just around the corner from the hotel). What better way to end our time in Italy than with a wine tasting.
We had some hard to find wine, we made a few new friends, we met a couple from the Houston, Texas area, and had a light dinner (cheese). This was also a great experience.
We wrapped up our night be taking a walk down to the Ponte Vecchio.
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