The Italian Adventure Continued

Nothing like a snow day (more like week) to remind you of projects you haven't finished. Like finishing your blog posts about your trip from SEPTEMBER. Oh yeah, that one! Well, here we go, day 5!
September 20th, 2011
Vernazza to Firenze

Travel day for us. We were sad to leave Vernazza but exciting to move on to Florence and adventures beyond. We managed to eat breakfast one more time with the Canoli Brothers. The pastries were amazing just as before. Our timing was perfect because just as we were about to leave a tour group of Australians came in and took over the store. Nice people, just A LOT of them.

We got our train from Vernazza to La Spezia without too much issue but ended having to wait almost two hours (due to train delays) to catch our train from La Spezia to Pisa and then Pisa to Florence. In theory and perfect train schedules, Vernazza to Florence is about 2.5 hours. But of course theory and perfection (at least as it relates to transportation) rarely occurs in Italy. So 4 hours later we made it to Florence. By this time we were starving, but we took a taxi to our hotel and got checked in and bags dropped off. I then took Pete to my favorite kabab (basically a gyro) shop near Piazza Santa Croce (very near to where my apartment was when I studied in Florence). We inhaled them while people watching at the Piazza.

After we finished eating we decided to head over to another favorite spot, this time for GELATO! It was just down the street up Via deNeri to Gelateria deNeri. They make all of their own gelato and is a more quiet out of the way type shop. Pete had Lemon and Coconut and I had Hazelnut and Chocolate. We headed back to our hotel to relax on the terrace until dinner.

The Duomo peaking out behind some buildings.

Il Bargello (on the left)

For dinner we went to yet another favorite from my time in Florence, to Trattoria I' Che' C'e' C'e'. Lovely little whole in the wall place in between Piazza Santa Croce and Piazza Signoria. We had two kinds of primi, one pasta ala Limone and pasta blognese. Both were lovely and simple. Secondo was Vitello all Limone (Veal with Lemon) which was fantastic. This place also serves as a almost apertivi small fried balls of dough (maybe two per person). As the bread in Florence is famously without salt, these little guys fried and sprinkled with salt fresh out of the frier were amazing.

The evening was of course not complete without gelato (again at Gelateria deNeri). Pete had spicy chocolate and hazelnut and I had nutella.

No trip to Florence is complete without a pictures with David.