Florence take 2
Two weekends ago now, James and I went to Florence, the second time for me, but first for him. We again stayed at Hotel Cestelli and had a great time there (Say hi to Asumi and Alessio for us!). By the end of the wedding I think they’ll have met most of our family and friends!!!
We came to Florence for a few reasons, the main being that James hadn’t been, the other… to continue the never-ending hunt for wedding shoes. To cut a long story short I found the shoes 
That left us with plenty of time to visit a number of museums, and to take some nice long walks.
Saturday afternoon saw us visit Galleria dell’Accademia where you find “the” David. Arguably Michelangelo’s most famous piece of art. The gallery itself is very small, 5 rooms in all, of which one was inaccessible. Despite this the queues to get inside were massive and I was glad to have pre-booked! Whilst the rest of the gallery was a disappointment, and the audio guide was a total waste of money, the statue of David was very impressive. Upon turning the corner into the hall that leads to David you are immediately stuck by its sheer size. David stands just over 5 meters tall, sculpted from a single block of marble. The lines are amazing, and it does deserve its status as world’s most beautiful statue. I think we spent a good 20 minutes basking in “David’s” glory in the relatively tranquil hall (if you don’t include the screeching voices of the docents yelling “no photo” at virtually every tourist).
That night we ate at a really cool trattoria called Cambi (highly recommended!) having traditional Tuscan cuisine. I had a steak – those of you who know me well know that I’m not normally one to eat huge chunks of meat, but this was great! I shared some of James’ soup – ribolito (yum!) and his pasta. They also served delicious pecorino with fig jam, somewhat like Clay’s (James’ dad’s) but a little more gelatinous. Hard to know which is better 
Sunday morning saw us up bright and early to visit the very famous Uffizi gallery, two of the most famous paintings you find there are by Botticelli – The Birth of Venus, and Spring. Whilst the whole gallery had so many amazing pieces of both Florentine and Venetian renaissance art we both felt a little over saturated. I guess we’re very spoilt having visited all of the major art galleries that Italy has to offer!
A walk along the Arno after our Uffizi gallery visit saw us discover a series of padlocks attached to one of the sides of the river wall close to Ponte Santa Trinita. A while ago (after our trip to Rome unfortunately) I read an article in the weekend Age newspaper about a bridge on the Tevere river that has a series of padlocks attached to it. This tradition stems from a novel by Italian author Federico Moccia who wrote the book Tre metri sopra il cielo (3 meters above the sky), a love story that describes a couple “locking in” their love for eternity by writing their names on a padlock, attaching it to a bride in Rome, and throwing the keys in to the river so that their love can never be undone. Romans have now famously adopted this tradition, but the Florentines have also joined in and what we found is undoubtedly the start of the Florentine tradition. After taking a few photos we turned around to find a large group of people assembled behind us with their cameras out too (whether mobile phone cameras or SLRs) also taking photos of this cute tradition.
For lunch we went to 4 Leoni, an amazing trattoria which Michaella and I went to. We again had the yummy pear and soft cheese pasta which is called Fiocchetti di Pera in Salsa di Taleggio e Asparagi (it) (We just looked at their web site and they give you the recipie for this gastronomic treat stay tuned for a report on how it turns out DIY) – can’t recommend it highly enough! Afterwards we went for a lovely walk to Piazzale Michelangelo. A short walk from the centre and up a series of steps sees you at a fantastic vantage point to take heaps of photos of the Florentine skyline! It was a shame about the tacky souvenir shops around the piazza, but I guess that’s what happens when there’s such a lovely spot. We then moved on to a very cool monastery from the 12th century, and a walk past many rolling hills and olive groves barely outside the centre of town.
Florence is a beautiful city! There were plenty more museums and castles to see that will have to wait us next time. It was fabulous, with the added bonus of finding my shoes, we got back to Genova feeling very happy!!!