Florence I

Today was our first day trip!  We were told to be at the local train station no later than 6:45 AM so that we could catch the fast train in.  Though I set my alarm for 5:45, my internal alarm, or something external I'm not aware of, decided that I should wake up at five.  Considering I didn't manage to get to sleep until midnight due to my very chatty roommate, this didn't leave me with much sleep.  Then the train was twenty minutes late and not an express.  Italy is odd like that.

First stop was San Miniato al Monte, a stunning church looking down on the city from one of the surrounding hilltops.  We spent a good amount of time taking photographs inside.  I did so with the Bach Magnificat in my ears setting the mood in a very fitting way.  The challenge was to not sing along.  I managed it... most of the time... and only ever so quietly if I failed.

After that was a long walk down winding roads back to the Ponte Vecchio, or old bridge,  across the Arno, which is the only bridge in Florence that predates the German retreat in WWII (thank you, Wikipedia).  It's covered with jewelry shops and tons of tourists.

Continuing our tour back towards the center of town, we entered the Orsanmichele, a rather small church with a very large tabernacle housing a painting of the Madonna and Child, which apparently cures the sick of their ailments (or, at least, did so during the plague).  It was guarded by a small woman with a loud voice who wasn't ever afraid to tell people not to take photographs.  I offered a .50 Euro coin for a small votive to light in front of it.

Finally we were able to run off and find some food.  I think everyone was pretty starved.  We'd grabbed snacks before catching the train and shortly after we arrived but much walking was done and it was time for something more substantial.  I wandered off with the Ann and Lawrence, our professors, Erica, Lawrence's TA, and Ann's two grown sons who are on the trip with us to find a panini shop that Lawrence had heard great things about.  We split up there, with Lawrence and Erica staying for a sandwich and the rest of us went to find some pasta or pizza.  The result wasn't great.  Ann and one of her sons had pizza that they deemed inedible, although my torteloni in butter and sage wasn't horrid and her other son seemed happy with his pasta ragu.  

The gelato afterward was much better.  Apparently, Italians think it's odd to get just a single flavor of gelato, so I'll be trying two each day, as I have so far.  Festival Del Gelato was amazing!  They had at least fifty flavors to choose from with a variety of milk, cream, and sorbetto flavors, all of which were decorated to show off their contents.  The colors were so rich and beautiful and I had a difficult time choosing.  I decided to go with one of my favorite combinations, raspberry and mango.  Be sure that I'll be visiting again on our next two forays to Florence.

After lunch we stared at the huge Duomo di Firenze, (the Basilica di Santa Maria  del Fiore) and the Baptistery and Campanile (bell tower) in front of and beside it and spent more time taking photos.  We should be entering it's great dome, known as Brunelleschi's Dome after it's architect, on one of our later trips.

After wandering around for a bit afterward, we headed back to the train station for the 5 PM train and rush hour traffic back to Castiglion Fiorentino.  Dinner tonight was penne rigatte in a light oil sauce with fresh tomatoes and Parmesan cheese followed by a simple salad and thinly sliced roast beef (rare or well done) and some divine mashed potatoes.  We had an actual dessert tonight rather than the usual fruit, something they call chocolate salami.  Which is sort of indescribable but tastes a lot like chocolate fudge and has little bits of sweet cookie, perhaps something like ladyfingers, mixed in to be the salami "fat".

The post dinner time was taken up with sorting through images from today, some minor editing, and the blog, of course!  Now it's 12:30 and plenty late for bed.  Until tomorrow!