Firenze, Italia: Days 3 and 4

Florence, Italy

Day 3: Saturday, 12/4

We started off the day in Piazza del Duomo again. We hadn't yet had the chance to go inside the Duomo before closing hours, so went inside the cathedral and also into the crypt. We then climbed the hundreds of stairs up the bell tower. The Campanile, bell tower, is commonly called Giotto's Campanile since the first story was designed by Giotto.

 View of Florence from the bell tower
(You can see Santa Croce and Palazzo Vecchio here)

We had some lunch at Trattoria Za Za where I had the lasagna al forno and the flourless chocolate tort with pudding. We then walked by a square (I can't remember the name) where there were many carts and vendors set up. There is also a small statue of a boar here. Legend goes that if you rub its nose you will have good luck!

 Caption

We then went to Santa Croce, in Piazza Santa Croce. This is the largest Franciscan church in Italy and holds the tombs of several important Florentine's including Michelangelo and Dante. The vast interior contains stained glass windows and frescoes. One of Brunelleschi's most important works, the Cappella dei Pazzi, is in Santa Croce.

Set up in the piazza was Florence's Christmas markets! It wasn't incredibly impressive, mostly because the majority of the products were surprisingly... from Holland. Around the piazza are also several leather stores that we walked around in.

 Santa Croce

We then headed back to the city center and passed through the Ponte Vecchio again where we saw all the jewelry stores. In the main square by the Duomo there was some sort of parade with people playing instruments.

A parade

After a day of sight seeing we had some dinner at Tratorria Anita where I had la ribollita, a Tuscan bread soup with vegetables.

Day 4: Sunday, 12/5

My last day in Florence was pretty low key. I had some packing to do and we slept in. We later stopped by a cafe and I had a pizzette with prosciutto and mushrooms. I also picked up a small panini with arugula, roasted mushrooms and mozzarella for the plane ride later. Alex then took me to the train station so I could catch the shuttle to the airport for my 5:30 pm flight. This time, I landed in Munich on time at 7:30 - with more than enough time to spare until my connecting flight at 9:30! Fast forward to 10:30 and I had landed in Prague... where it was of course snowing!