September 1, 2015
Our Third Day in Florence
Like so many days on this trip, this day was a great contender for the best day of our vacation (aka the best day of our lives). It started off with a wild, scenic country drive, a delicious farmhouse brunch, (more) incredible gelato, world-class architecture, world class art, and then the best meal of our lives. So yep, definitely a pretty great day.
Our home exchange host recommended this restaurant, Lo Spaccio, which is located on the Fattoria Maiano, an olive orchard. We decided to head over for breakfast, since it wasn't too far from the house, at least according to Google Maps. What Google Maps didn't tell us was that the 25 minute drive would take us up and down extremely steep, narrow country roads, back and forth on hairpin switch backs, and blindly off-roading through the Italian countryside for almost 45 minutes. See those little trails in the picture above? Picture our little minivan just bumping along those dirt paths as we all looked around trying to figure out where this restaurant is and how we were supposed to get there...
But once we did, it was awesome!
We had the whole place to ourselves, and they set up a nice table for us with farm-fresh bread, meat, cheese, and of course, orchard-fresh olive oil!
We were all so happy to have found it and so relaxed to be enjoying such a nice, quiet meal in an incredible place.
View from beside the table.
Once again, we determined to visit the World's Greatest Gelateria, La Carraia. We got some great pics on this visit, and it was just as good as it was the previous day and all the days that CheyAnn went there as a student.
Gelato makes everyone happy.
As we walked along the streets of downtown Florence, Solana noticed this pony out of the corner of her eye in some store, and convinced us all to walk over for a pic, even though we had no idea what she was talking about. Great find!
The magnificent Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, or "the Duomo", is as beautiful up close as it is viewed from a distance. The size, the scale, the detail, the grandeur, everything about it made it one of the most impressive things we have ever seen!
We got to climb the stairs to the top, all 500 of them, and the trek included walking along the inside of the cupola of the dome. Yes, in this picture I am literally almost hugging the wall, as this walkway was so high up. To give a sense of how big and tall the dome is, it starts at the level we were at here, 171 feet above the ground below, and the dome curves up and in from there to a peak at 375 ft.
Gazing up at the dome from inside the cathedral.
Solana was an incredible champ climbing up 500 stairs (and riding down 500 stairs on my back).
Incredible views of Florence and the country from the top.
Inside the cathedral.
Gail loves Italy!
Boston loves Italy!
Solana loves The David.
We all love The David! (Which is just incredible to view in person.)
Just a small portion of the incredible art at the Galleria dell'Accademia, which houses The David.
That night, CheyAnn and I headed off to a wonderful restaurant, Sesto on Arno, located on the roof of the Westin hotel overlooking the city and the Arno River. Both of us had the tasting menu, and CheyAnn had the vegetarian tasting menu, and it was quite possibly the most delicious meal we've ever had! I don't remember everything, because it was 6+ courses of culinary creativity, but I do remember the one below, which was beef carpaccio served on a salt platter! Delicious and mind-blowing!
Delightful, delicious dessert.
View from the best meal of our lives! A great way to end one of the best days ever!
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