We started the day a bit late. We were a bit too optimistic about how awake and non jet lagged we felt, so we did not set an alarm. Subsequently, we did not wake up until 10 AM! We had an ambitious agenda, so we ran and got breakfast and started the day.
We went to the great little place with a whole gluten free floor. Rebecca was able to get a gluten free croissant!
Cathy even ate a gluten free breakfast. She also ordered a latte (she thought) but an espresso arrived, so she drank it. It was STRONG and not her first choice of coffee drinks, but it was also a nice experience. The texture was almost creamy- like a Guinness beer or a thin pudding. She's going to have to figure out Italian for "latte" because those are truly delicious here.
Cathy got her cell phone set up as well! A friendly and very helpful guy at the TIM cell phone store got her set up with a prepaid SIM card with data for 20 Euros. Cathy was most interested in the data plan so she can use her iPhone turn by turn directions, which she did today with somewhat limited success. It is so nice to have, and she continues to wonder what we did before Smart phones. (Well, before her smart phone, she depended on her smart map reading husband!) The prepaid SIM was easy to get and it did not take long at all to get set up, so she thinks that she will be doing it on future trips.
We started by heading to San Marco. Rebecca wanted to see a particular painting there, and it was a neat tour. It has been both a convent and an abbey, and we got to tour the cells. Each cell had an incredible paining on the wall. The floors were smooth from years of people walking over them. The courtyard was filled with flowers and incredible art. Cathy was particularly amazed that the paintings in the courtyard had survived hundreds of years of the weather!
After San Marco, we went to the Gallery de Academia to see David. We did not have reservations (and were not able to make any- we waited too long) so we had to stand in line. It was about a 45 minute wait, which was not so bad. However, we had to endure three couples ahead of us continually making out. It was quite a show! We got through security with no problems, and Cathy did not even steal anyone's glasses this time! :)
At this point, we were SO tired of walking, so we decided to take a bus back to the hotel. We accidentally got on to the wrong bus, so we enjoyed a mini tour of Florence while we waited for it to loop back to our starting destination. (Cathy is very fond of buses when traveling. Her travel pro tip: When in doubt or lost or overwhelmed to the point you can't think/figure out where you are, get on a bus. The tickets are generally cheap, and even if you get on the wrong one, it always loops back, so you have some time to reflect and figure out your next move instead of wandering around getting increasingly lost. ) By the time we got back to San Marco, we'd figured out which bus we really needed to be on, and we waited at the stop in the pouring rain for it to arrive. An old lady invited herself to our umbrella party, and chattered happily in Italian at us until someone with a bigger, nicer umbrella arrived. We got on the proper bus and proceeded on to our next destination- the Ognissanti church.
The Ognissanti church was overwhelmingly beautiful. We almost missed the door- it was hiding in plain sight along the wall of a big building filled with shops. When we went in, we were both stunned at how HUGE it was! It was very quiet, there was soothing sacred music playing gently in the background, and for the first time that day we were not being jostled around in huge crowds. Since we were unable to take pictures, we recommend you check out this site to see some. It was phenomenal. It was a restful way to finish a hectic day.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped and got our daily dose of gelato. Cathy got chocolate, and Rebecca had a cream flavor. Gelato never disappoints. The store we went to even had gluten free ice cream cones, so Rebecca was able to have a cone!
After the Pizza Man Dr. Pizza getting lost fiasco, we decided to *start* on a bus this time around when we headed out to dinner. We were unsure where the first stop was, so we decided to walk to the nearby train station to catch one there. We got on a bus, and immediately thought it was the wrong one, so we were going to loop around. However, as we kept going, we realized it was the *right* bus. The stop that we should have gotten on was literally across the street from our hotel! We laughed and laughed. Then we pulled up to our stop. We got off, started walking...and realized that our stop was where we had gotten on the bus in the first place. We totally outed ourselves as uncouth tourists by laughing until we cried, then set off for our restaurant. We only got a tiny bit lost (thanks, step by step talking Google map!) but it was worth the wait.
In Italy, you order meals in courses. We decided that tonight we were going to go all out and order everything, from soup to nuts.
Cathy started with onion soup, which was so good she literally nearly cried.
It was followed by a cheese course (AMAZING)
and then ravioli with spinach and tomatoes.
Rebecca started with a caprice salad...
followed by wild boar and polenta.
and a side of roasted potatoes with rosemary.
The boar was recommended to us by a woman that we were in line with at the Uffizi museum. It tasted a bit like pot roast with a hint of bacon- very good!
Rebecca and Cathy shared a cute mini jug of house wine, which was delicious! It was a much more reasonable size than the one we got at the pizza place- about a glass and a half each.
We had a mild heart attach adventure about halfway back to the hotel, when Rebecca realized that she'd left her purse at the restaurant! EEP! We ran back there, and they were expecting us! They brought it back out, and we all had a good, nervous laugh about forgetting bags. At least we realized it was gone fairly quickly and were able to get it back.
We got back to the hotel to pack and book a hotel for our next destination- Rimini! It' a beachy tourist town, and we're looking forward to a day or two of just relaxing. We're considering trying to find a spa to deal with our sore calves and shoulders, but we'll see how that goes. We're booked in a hotel that is on the beach, includes breakfast AND has gluten free options, which will be nice and easy.
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