Friends in Firenze

Our first stop in Italy… Firenze (Florence); the home of Michaelangelo’s David, the Ponte Vecchio, and the Duomo. The latter of which stopped us dead in our tracks right in the path of an oncoming bus. The façade is composed almost entirely of white, green, and pink marble. Getting lost in it’s radiance and intricacy, it is easy to forget it’s enormity until your eyes drift back down to earth and see the teeny little tourists scattered all around it. All roads in Florence seem to lead to the Duomo, we have passed it several times since, but we have stopped to admire it just as many times.

So far there are just too many things to love about Italy… the art, architecture, food, wine… even the shopping in Florence has tempted Adam the ultimate non-shopper. The best part though, has been meeting up with friends! Our first night in Florence, we met up with Tom for dinner and then post dinner libations. The triple threat of the alcohol, our unfamiliarity with the city, and the fact that all the roads here really do seem to lead to the Duomo led to some interesting navigating home. Eventually we gave in and took a 500 metre cab ride to our hotel, which we had come very close to on foot about a dozen times.

We took a daytrip to the nearby Chianti region to see where some of the great wines that we had been drinking are produced. Despite our intentions of riding some bikes around the area, we never even made it out of our first tasting room! Watch the video to check out where we spent most of the afternoon. It certainly was not as charming as visiting an actual winery and meeting the people who are involved in the creation of the wine. However, we did have the opportunity to taste a huge variety of wines and narrow down which of the kazillion wineries we would like to visit.


Then… more company! Lisa was kind enough to work with our last minute frenetic travel planning and shift her plans around to meet up with us in Florence. It was great hearing her stories and travel tips from Rome. The three of us will travel on to Venice Friday with some winery visits on the way. Lisa is also writing about her travels in her blog, which given her fabulous writing skills, will be a welcome break from our grammatically horrifying ramblings. Check it out here: lisafukushimablog@blogspot.com

There are really so many things we have seen and done here in Florence- I would love to just go on and on with all the details but I’m certain it would just end up looking like blabbity, blabbity, blah. Highlights? Meeting friends, seeing the infamous David, visiting Florence’s equivalent of Granville Island market- full of gorgeous fresh Italian fare, being stopped in our tracks on our first sight of the Duomo, and not getting hit by a bus while being stopped in our tracks on our first sight of the Duomo.
Stay tuned for Venice!