When we arrived in Firenze, we took a cab to the hotel (Hotel La Morandi, which used to be a convent) and checked in, but our room wasn’t ready. We freshened up in another room and left our luggage in the lobby.

We walked around the outdoor San Lorenzo market to kill time before lunch. Hence our first taste of Italy was the shopping. We ate lunch at Tratorria Mario on Via Rosina based on a recommendation from the hotel. The meal was very good and cheap to boot. We had the house wine, which was good. In Italy, all restaurants have a house wine, and all meals should be eaten with wine. And who are we to be different? Since we were up all night flying, we got really sleepy and returned to the hotel to nap for a few hours.

Our hotel was fairly close to the Duomo, which in Italian towns is the main cathedral. We walked around the Duomo area. The Duomo itself is quite impressive. The facade was recently restored so it looked great, but the sides were still covered with black soot.

Last time I was in Italy, one of the things I loved was the gelati. It’s not the same as the gelato here, but it was the best ice cream-type food I’ve ever had. We had our first (of many) Italian gelatis near the Duomo. After that we walked towards the Arno river, over the Santa Trinita bridge to watch the water and the sunset. On the four corners of the bridge were statues representing the four seasons. We walked over to another bridge, the Ponte Vecchio but the shops were all closed.

We had dinner at Mamma Gina’s in the Oltarno section, and had polenta and mushroom antipasti, canneloni and ribollita, shrimp with curry, and carpacchio with Barolo wine to wash it down. I was not super impressed with the wine but food was excellent. After dinner we walked to Ponte Allegrazi and through the Uffizi gallery area and listened to the musicians there. At Piazza Della Signoria we sat down at a cafe and had really good Panna Cotta and Cappuccino. Theresa tried her first cafe latte, of which she only took 3 sips.