Florence greeted us with a scorching hot sun, throngs of tourists, and aggressive Italian drivers. Luckily, we had a little oasis of a bed and breakfast, right in the city center. A little put off at first, it didn't take long for us to relent to Florence's charms.
Brunelleschi's dome dominates the city, and having both read a book about it, we were hooked. We took pictures from every angle, got cricks in our necks from staring straight up, and joined the hordes to climb to the top on the same steps used by the masons five centuries ago.
Other than ogling at the Duomo, as it's called, we spent a surprisingly enjoyable six hours staring at religious Renaissance art at the Uffizi gallery. Vassar's Art History 101 meant we actually had a vague idea about the significance of what we were looking at. Go VC. While the Uffizi is incredible in size, we were most struck by Michelangelo's unfinished Pieta, housed in a nearly empty museum across from the Duomo. You can walk around the whole sculpture and just sit on a bench and take it in, without people pushing and shoving from all sides.
Besides the art, we ate. Gelato. Pasta. Cheese. Repeat. The last night of our trip we closed down a wine bar, much to the amusement of the waitstaff, with quartino after quartino of regional wine and goat cheese crostini dripping with honey. Not a bad way to end....
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