Day 16 & 17 - Firenze Fun

Hi! Hi!  

The Dumo. Also our neighbor for the week. 

Josh and I have spent the past two days exploring and shopping in Florence. I adore this city! It's small enough that you can walk the whole thing easily but large enough that you still discover new places. There are SO MANY Americans here. Oh my goodness it's nuts. Everyone speaks English. Josh and I actually enjoy when people don't speak English as well because it puts us on an even playing field. If we don't know their language, they shouldn't have to know ours. Here in Florence, they definitely know ours. It's nice because we can have conversations with the locals. 

Leather School Workshop

We started the day with a quick bite in a cafe and then headed to "Sculoa del Cuoio" which translates to school of leather in Florence. It supposedly had the best leather by artisans in training. We showed up to a church, walked around the whole thing on a back path, thought we were in the wrong place and finally found it up a small staircase. Most artisans were out on their lunch break but we could look at their workstations. Their tools were beautiful. It was clear the bags, shoes and jackets they made were of a very high quality but we were disappointed in the creativeness of their work. None of the designs were unique. After looking around for a bit, we headed back to the streets of Florence in search of more shops. Josh and I fell in love with a bookstore/paper store we found. He bought the coolest sketchbook I have ever seen. The cover is wood and leather. I found a few small prints of Florence I will frame once home. We also went into a specialty balsamic shop. We tested a few different balsamics of different ages (8,10,20 years) and finally settled on purchasing the 20 year old balsamic. Yum! 

Dinner in the "castle" 

Josh and I both want to purchase a few leather goods while we are here like a pair of shoes and a bag. We have been looking for the perfect leather jacket for years and years but haven't found it so have just kinda given up. We stumbled upon this one jacket shop (not planning on even looking for a jacket in Florence) and both ended up buying our perfect leather jacket! The shop was called Lorenz Leather and we spent over an hour hanging out with Marco, the salesman. He claimed it was a family owned business. We met Lorenzo, who the shop was named after, along with his son. Marco spoke fluent English and we had a wonderful time talking to him. After trying on jacket after jacket, we picked our favorites and bought them for a great deal! We are so siked. 

Dinner was in the coolest restaurant ever! The food was really good but the place was out of this world! Our food was served on beautiful, colorful ceramic. The walls were completely painted in a very medieval way. We were essentially in a castle eating our dinner. 

Today we spent the day exploring more shops. We haven't started churches or museums yet because we are buying a three day pass for unlimited access to all the galleries and museums in Florence. Once the pass starts, you only have 72 hours before it expires. The only three days we have in a row is Tuesday through Thursday. The museums are closed on Monday but it still uses up your hours. So don't worry! The museums are coming. 

Boboli Gardens

Today I found the most beautiful, floral, small over the shoulder purse that I bought. I'm in love with it. Josh found shoe store after shoe store of awesome shoes! He hasn't bought any yet because he is looking for the perfect pair but the shoes here are so cool! We also visited the Boboli Gardens. They were lovely and huge! The gardens kept going and going and going. We had no clue it would be so large when we decided to go. The gardens were filled with sculptures, fountains, foliage and beautiful views of the city. I'm very glad we went!  

My dinner at Acqua Al 2

Our dinner was amazing! By amazing, I mean one of the best meals I have ever had in my entire life, if not the best meal. Oh my goodness. The place was called Acqua Al 2. When we arrived, there was a big line to get in and we didn't have a reservation. Luckily, we didn't have to wait very long and it was so worth it. The walls were covered in plates all designed by customers. Some of them looked like pieces of art while others looked like an adult handed a child a marker and a plate. The menu was completely in Italian and we had no idea what to order so we asked our waitress for recommendations. Josh ended up getting a spinach filled pasta with avacado and pomegranate. I ordered a steak with a balsamic glaze and fruit. We also ordered a cabbage salad, house wine, a chocolate torte and limoncello drinks. I almost cried after the first bite of my steak. It was nothing less than magical. 

I will leave you now with that thought. 

Ciao,  

Lilly

Caffe La Cattedrale - 10.5€ 

Borgo La Croce - 19.5€ 

Ristorante Paoli - 54€

Coronas Cafe - 14.2€ 

La Mangiatoia - 23.5€ 

Acqua Al 2 - 58.3€ 

Groceries - 15€ 

View of the oldest bridge in Florence

A beautiful church we found on a walk

Boboli Gardens