After Leaving Assisi, we had a few hours to travel to reach Florence (Firenz), the capital of the Tuscany region. The birth of Renaissance

Upon arriving in Florence, we went to our hotel, the Leonardo da Vinci . As we drove around and through parts of the city to reach our hotel, I was not super impressed. The outskirts of towns are often not as pretty as the city center. We had also just left Assisi and at this point, there was no way any other town was going to compare to the beauty. Enroute, we were told that Leather was the big thing here in Florence. However not to buy any until we had had our workshop the following day so that we knew what we were buying.

Between here and Assisi, olive oil was recognized as a very notable product produced in the area. As it was natural to see olive trees bearing growing olives here and there. Alex taught us that when purchasing olive oil, the residue at the bottom of the bottle was a sign of good olive oil. So if you ever are able to buy good fresh olive oil; therefore don’t let the residue floating in the bottom deter you, but attract you.

Immediately upon arriving we went and deposited our luggage at the hotel and ‘refreshed’. In this hotel due to the way the rooms worked out, I had my own room. The air was very cool and it took some time to mess with the switches to figure out how to turn on the fridge and lights. The bed was a little twin bed and a balcony behind it with a train track. I immediately put everything in my room and noted the small space that I had. However I was not bothered by this; just realized I was going to be lonely not rooming with a friend for the night.

Once we regrouped, we then took an approximately 15 minute walk to the center of town in Florence. This is when we were able to see the Duomo Cathedral in center square which had such beauty with its architecture and colors.  In that square and surrounding streets there stores, shops, markets. This was actually a very beautiful area. We had a short opportunity to shop and get some needed items; as well spent some time walking around and enjoying the area before dinner which was right around the corner. Osteria ‘Dell Olio was the restaurant. This was one of our favorite meals as well.

Dinner was actually amazing with multiple dishes of foods coming out to us to share family style- various salami and cheeses, bruschetta, mushroom risotto, pasta…
We shared Chianti amongst the adults, as this was a popular wine in Florence.

We played a game this night at dinner. Prior to the trip everyone was asked to buy a pair of goofy or fun sunglasses. Earlier in the day everyone placed their sunglasses in a big brown bag. Each person picked a random number from a pile to determine the order. As your number came up, you got to stick your hands into the bag and grab a pair of sunglasses. Wearing these made for fun entertainment and good moods all around. Lots of laughing was had and kept the group temperature light and enjoyable.

After dinner we walked down the street as a group and found a couple local musicians playing the violin and singing. Our group went up to the stage area and started dancing to the music. Much of it was American music so we were able to dance along. Many of us got involved in the dancing to the music, enjoying ourselves.
After a while, we broke out into groups and some walked to the river while others rode scooters in the square, and others went back to the hotel. After some time several in my group scootered back to the hotel.

The following morning we woke up and Alex wanted to treat us to a view he liked that was a view point over the city. It was foggy; however still pretty.  Piazzale Michelangelo was the location we attended.

Once we had had time for photos and looking around at the market, we moved on, walking close to a mile down the road via stairs and back roads towards the river to cross and head to the Leather workshop. This was essentially a small class showing us how leather is made in Florence and how to recognize fake versus real leather. We spent more time than we should have purchasing here. However our education allowed me to go into a souvenir shop and discover that some items were sold a little more pricey and were not leather.
we also learned that it was a very big deal in Italy if one was caught promoting fake leather as real with the stamp of Pelle. It was nice to know that the country protects those whom work hard to create a real product and mimics are not tolerated.

In Italy there is also a way get tax reimbursements on your purchases when taking them out of the country. We were provided a Global Blue form and tax receipt from the leather company if you spent over a certain amount to claim. This is something we took care of at the airport on the air side after customs. After visiting the customs office to get our stamp, we were able to walk over the Global blue and get our money back. Notable is that there are other companies that participate in this type of program therefore not all can be reimbursed at the airport however the items receipt must be stamped at the airport in customs. Also notable was that had we used cash, we would have been charged a lesser amount in the store as to not have to go through the tax situation at the airport.

After the leather workshop, some went back to the hotel to drop off their stuff. At this point we were all on a tight timeline to reach our next tour. We had been prepped that lunch would be a nice steak at the market; however we were not looking to have much time. The group that had bags to return to the hotel had to go since we couldn’t carry them in the next tour. The rest of us ran to the market and found the steak location after a bit of searching around. Here you locate the meat you want. They take a large piece of meat and shop a huge slice off and cook it in front of you behind the counter. They then cut your steak and slice it up on a nice plate. We shared this between 4 of us. By the time it was cooked, we had 5 minutes to eat. I hated not being able to savor the steak; however it was amazing still. We packaged up our leftovers and gave them to Alex to eat.

We then left quickly. As the 4 of us left, Daniel and I weren’t patient ad ended up going the wrong way down the escalator and took a few extra minutes to get our bearing together. The other 2 in our group had gone on the correct direction first so we’re ahead of us. We looked up on the maps app how to get there, however due to bad cell service Daniel and I kept getting sent the wrong way. We finally arrived 15 minutes late in a hot sweat. We had walked a lot and fast around the city streets chasing our gps… Pro-tip- don’t separate from the group if you’re in a hurry.

On to the Galleria dell Acaddemia to see the statue of David (David and Goliath David). Due to our group size we had a 2nd tour guide. This was the primary thing to see however to be educated on how these stone statues were created.  There were practice and uncompleted stautes in the building,  however Michaelangelo completed and had David on full display.   This extremely tall statue had stood outside for many years and was eventually moved due to weather. There is a replica in front of the church in town now.

After visiting here, we walked through the Basilica di Santa Croce. Security offered scarves for anyone whom did not have their shoulders or knees covered.

Once we left here, we had free time in Florence. We were able to walk the streets, get gelato, visit another leather store where prices were lower and quality was just as good. shop and meet at the restaurant in time for dinner. Dinner tonight was at Ristorante I Ghibellini.

After dinner we took advantage of more free time and last minute shopping. More kids rode scooters and the adults spread out on who was responsible for who and we returned to our hotel on foot. That evening I walked back with 4 others to the hotel and pretty much went straight to bed. As we knew we had the morning trip to Venice starting early…