Final Morning in Florence, onto Pisa and then Genoa
Uffizi
Visit to the Uffizi, which houses prestigious pieces of artwork such as Venus of Urbino, etc.
Lunch & Gelato
We went across the river towards the Pitti Palace for lunch at Mamma Gina’s and gelato.
Pisa
Visited the Basilica and church, and took the touristy picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We also got dinner at a trattoria nearby.
Hotel Canali
Checked into this gorgeous hotel, and went to sleep. =)
Uffizi
Early this morning, we packed, checked out of the hotel, and got our last breakfast in Florence. It was raining a little bit, but I was excited to visit the Uffizi. Evan’s words as we were exiting were, “that’s a lot of artâ€. It’s unfortunate that we weren’t allowed to take pictures. The first floor had a room full of Durer’s drawings. I actually got a few pictures of those. Then we went upstairs to the rest of the gallery, where there were famous paintings such as Venus of Urbino, … There were a roomful of da Vinci’s, Raphael’s, and other such notable artists. I am definitely looking forward to the Louvre- it will be uberamazing.
Lunch and Gelato
We got lunch at Mamma Gina’s, which is across the bridge with lots of gold shops (goldsmiths sold their wares on this bridge for quite a long time). We were rather tired and decided not to go to the palace. The gelato place was open (reputed to be the best gelato in the world), but we got way too much ice cream. We got lemon, berry, and two types of chocolate. It was marvelous, although it was raining and I wasn’t in a particularly pro-gelato mood. I would later get a stomachache.
Pisa
Then we went to Pisa (the rain cleared and it was a beautiful day), and Evan was super-excited that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was open for visitors. The next visit wouldn’t be for two hours, and Evan thought that was rather ridiculous so we went to the basilica and the church. It was pretty cool seeing the lady sing and the acoustics were terrific- as seen in the video. The church wasn’t super-impressive, and the only thing that probably keeps Pisa having tourists is its leaning tower. We did the usual tower picture, and went out for dinner.
The first place we tried, Emilio, was only open for lunch. We then went to Trattoria Sant’Omobono. The waitress was incredibly happy and loud. It wasn’t annoying, but I was rather amazed how she could be so happy and active. The food wasn’t remarkable, and that’s when my stomachache really kicked in (I think because I ate way too much food for lunch). I barely ate my dish, and Evan ate quite a bit of it. He had salad with steak, and I had pasta with a meat sauce.
Hotel Canali
It was quite late when we got to our hotel outside of Genoa, Hotel Canali. It was gorgeous and amazing. It was rather pretty, and it seemed like a four-star hotel to me. The only thing that struck me was the bathroom, which was rather annoying- when you turned on the lights from outside the bathroom, the fan went on that was rather clunky.