Italy: Day 2

This was the first of our tours with a 6:45am departure time. We stayed at the Hotel Donatello and the manager and staff were just so nice. Breakfast was open from 6:45 - 9:45 but we were leaving then. We were all prepared to miss breakfast and wait outside but the hotel manager said "No no, would you like some breakfast? Coffee? I'll let you know when they come." What service!

Here's JJ standing outside our hotel finishing up those fluffy soft croissants:


We passed through the region of Umbria, the only region in Italy completely surrounded by land, along the "Sunbelt" Highway. We passed by many towns that were built on top of rocks or on the edge of cliffs surrounded by fields of sunflowers like this one.


Our local guide recommended us to get a "spremuta" whenever we made a pit stop for the bathrooms. Spremuta is basically fresh-squeezed orange juice made from oranges from southern Italy. It was amazing! Never have I had orange juice so fresh, so naturally sweet, and so orange!

Almost three hours later, we made it to Firenze (Italian for Florence) and our first tourist stop was at an outlook point above the city in a square with a bronze copy of David (he's green). Here we are with the panoramic view of Firenze behind us.


Our next stop was the Galleria d'Accademia where the infamous (and genuine) statue of David by Michelangelo is housed. This statue is quite impressive as it completely overshadows anything else in the museum. I don't know about the proportions being perfect but this thing was just so big! This piece of marble was refused by two other artists but was accepted by Michelangelo because he could "see" David in the marble. JJ managed to sneak a really clean photo of it.
(click to enlarge)


Led by our local tour guide who wasn't that good, we "skimmed" through Florence: passed by the Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo), passed through some other streets lined with shops, and ate lunch (tour group lunches always seem to be bad).

After lunch, we were led through more streets to the Piazza della Signoria where the original David once stood. Now, it is an open air museum with copies of original statues (as well as original ones too). After taking a picture, we were led once more through to Piazza Santa Croce where the Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze stood.


Thankfully, we were given some free time so we got to go inside to visit the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and many other famous people who were buried there (Dante's memorial is here but not his actual resting place).

We also managed to squeeze in some famous Florentian gelato in our free time!


On our way back to the bus, I posed next to the Arno River and said goodbye to Florence.

We definitely need to come back here one day.

A sleepy three hours later, we were back in Rome. After being dropped off near our hotel, we wandered over to a nearby restaurant called The "Crazy" Sheep. We later found out that it wasn't a touristy restaurant with touristy food but when we were there, there was a large group of American college students. We had the best Italian sausages there because there was barely any fat and so delicious!