When life gives you lemons, make Limoncello

(Firenze: Parte due)

Day two in Florence started at 7:30am. We left the hostel to get an early start on everything we needed to see today that we couldn’t see yesterday. I love how everything in Florence is open early—walking down the streets, there are cafés and bars open, people going to work, and shop owners opening their stores for the day. We had some breakfast in a small caffé and then walked to the Accademia, which opens at 8:15am. When we got there at 8:30, there was a line about 50 people deep and it took us about a half hour to get in.

When we got into the museum, it was packed! Melinda and I planned to meet back at the front in 2 hours. This museum (other than the Prado) might be my favorite museum of all time. I was fascinated by every object in every room.

The first room I went into was the musical instrument museum room where they displayed one of the first pianofortes. They explained how the piano worked and had a place where you could play the piano and watch its inner workings while playing.
Next, I saw the David—absolutely incredible. I dropped in on a few tour groups listening to their guide talk about how some of the David—a sculpture meant to be the perfect man—has been damaged over the years. There is a crack in his right hand, as well as a big piece of stone missing from his right toe due to some crazy man who came into the Accademia and started hitting the statue with a hammer a few years ago.

My favorite room in the museum, though, was the 19th century sculpture room. Every sculpture was perfectly beautiful in its own way. They are perfectly formed, almost looking like frozen bodies. Each sculpture represents a part of the Florentine culture of the past and gives you a an idea of how people lived.

We walked to the train station to get our tickets to our respective destinations and passed through the Chiesa Santa Maria Novella—my favorite church in Florence. It has an incredible altar—a huge stained glass window stretches from ceiling to floor surrounded by hundreds of paintings.

Next we went to the Mercato San Lorenzo—the biggest outdoor market in Florence full of traditional Florentine items and lots of leather! There were beautiful leather shoes, purses, and wallets that were irresistible. I bought so many great gifts here. We had lunch near the mercato at a place called Mama Toscana—a funky (in a good way) and lively traditional Tuscan restaurant.
We walked around after lunch and went to Dante’s house (thanks St. Mary’s for teaching me about Dante!) and reminisced about the joy and misery of reading “Dante’s Inferno.” We then went into a great bookstore that had a book entitled: "When life gives you lemons, make Limoncello." I love this title--it's so...Florence.

The last place we went in Florence was one of my favorite activities—the Palazzo Vecchio. Melinda and I had booked a tour called the “Activities Tour—Secret Passageways” earlier in the morning. There were only 12 people in our tour group (the maximum) and our guide took us to all of the places in the Palazzo not open to the general public. Not only did she take us there, but she also took us through secret passageways in the literal sense.

Throughout the Palazzo, the Medici family built secret passageways from one room to another. There were small staircases built into the walls of the Palazzo. The first room we went into was called the “studiolo” (study). It was in the shape of a giant treasure box. There were faded paintings on the ceiling and paintings all over the walls and the paintings on the walls were actually secret hiding places. All of the paintings required a key to open and one of the paintings was a door leading to another staircase which led to a smaller room. This room belonged to Cosimo Medici. It was also shaped like a treasure chest with places to hide treasures behind each painting.

We concluded the tour by going into a huge room that looked almost like it should be a church. However, our guide made it clear that this room was never meant to be used for religious purposes—it was used for general assemblies and political gatherings. The entire ceiling was covered in paintings which have only ever been taken down twice, once during WWII. We went upstairs and were able to see how the paintings were held up by a suspension system in the roof so strong that the paintings can never be damages. It was amazing.

After the tour, we walked back to the hostel and stopped in a fantastic shop to get
some olive oil (the man who owned the shop had been making olive oil for 30 years). I got my backpack and walked to the train station. I never wanted to leave Florence…