Day 22: Florence

Lunch at Nerbone
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Today, we made SURE we woke up early.  We were unable to get reservations for the Uffizi and the Accademia so we knew we were going to face LONG lines for entry into the museums.  We sprinted over to the Uffizi and already found an incredibly long line.  We hopped in at the end of the line at around 8:00 a.m.  We didn't even get to enter until 10:15 a.m. or so.  As bad as that seems, the line just kept getting longer and longer.  We've heard that the lines can get up to a 6-hour wait!  The Uffizi has a pretty amazing collection of Renaissance art.  Of course everyone flocks to see Botticelli's Birth of Venus, which of course was pretty surreal to be standing in front of the very original one.  But there was so much more to be seen!  Room after room, gallery after gallery showcasing some of the Medici's former private collection.  After spending about two hours in the Uffizi, we darted over to the Accademia to see its main attraction - Michaelangelo's David.  When we were in line earlier for the Uffizi, there was an electronic sign that told us that the current wait for Accademia was approximately one hour.  No problem, we thought.  When we finally arrived at Accademia, the line was about 4 to 4.5 hours long (as the people in line and the employees told us).  We waited for about ten minutes (as it started to drizzle) when TJ said he refused to do the 4 hour wait and we would have to save it for another day (and get reservations for next time!).  We got out of line and decided to head out for lunch.

On the way to Palazzo Pitti
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We researched in our guidebook that told us there was a small place not too far away called Nerbone.  It's located in mercato centrale, their sort of main marketplace.  We somehow miraculously found it in the hectic market.  Nerbone is one of those places that's been around forEVER.  Serving Italian semi-fastfood.  They have meat sandwiches that reminded us of french dip sandwiches.  They specialized in meat dishes so they had an array of fresh meat with a butcher behind the counter chopping away.  They also have pastas of all sorts.  We ordered the farfalle in a greenish-cream sauce (maybe pesto/cream sauce?) and a penne in a ragu sauce.  We ordered one sandwich to share since it was their specialty.  Wow, this place was so amazingly good.  It didn't hurt that the whole meal cost us only 11 Euros, either!  That meal had us so full that we decided, since it was starting to drizzle and rain anyways, we'd head back to the hotel for an hour nap.  The food was just THAT good!  After a good nap (we made sure it really was only an hour - we didn't want to miss out on anything after all!) we walked across Ponte Vecchio again to get to the Palazzo Pitti.

One of the many fountains at Palazzo Pitti (Boboli Gardens)
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Palazzo Pitti is an immense former palace.  It was originally built to be a private residence by some man who was an importer of French fabrics.  He wanted a house so grand that it outshined the Medicis.  He got his wish, but came into financial hardship later on.  The Medicis simply bought the place from him and made it their romping grounds.  It was the grandest palace in all of Europe until Versailles was built.  The palazzo now holds a great collection of artwork, renaissance of course, and shows many of the Medicis bedrooms and living quarters.  The real treat was the so-called backyard of the palazzo.  One can literally get lost in that garden - we know we did!  They now call it the Boboli gardens.  With fountains and little labyrinth-like hedges for what seemed like miles, we didn't even get to explore the incredibly large place!  After a couple of hours of tracing the Medicis' steps, we stopped to rest at Piazza Signoria with some nice gelatto (again!).  We had earlier made reservations for a restaurant we heard was always full, and amazingly great at 8:00 p.m.

Waiting for dinner at Piazza Signoria
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When 8:00 p.m. rolled by, we headed for Buca dell Orafo right by Ponte Vecchio.  Good thing we made reservations!  The place became packed!  Since it was our last night in Chianti country and since we hadn't had any wine in Florence yet, we got a half-liter of house Chianti, minestrone for Melissa, and ravioli in an incredibly creamy/cheesy sauce for TJ.  Our primi piatti (first dish) were so so good!  We couldn't wait to get our main dish.  The menu was in Italian, naturally and we figured we could easily figure out what some words meant and had no need to ask the waitress for her help.  Melissa ordered the agnello-something-something (lamb) and TJ ordered the something-something-Pollo.  We figured we'd be safe with those.  After our first dishes were cleared away, the waitress brought us our secondi piatti.  Melissa's roasted lamb topped with roasted tomatoes looked delicious.  THEN she put down TJ's plate.  TJ had failed to realize (duh, we don't speak Italiano) that something-something-pollo was LIVER of CHICKEN!  Well, TJ not being the biggest liver fan looked disheartened.  Not wanting to be rude, TJ ate about a good quarter of his plate.  In the restaurant's defense, TJ said it definitely was the best seasoned liver he had ever had.  Melissa felt bad so she ate some of her lamb and switched dishes with TJ.  She ate about another quarter or-so of the liver and TJ thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the roasted lamb with roasted tomatoes.  By the way, all this was going on while the Italians at the table right next to us ordered the BIGGEST and JUICIEST steak we had ever seen!  We then ordered dessert.  TJ ordered the chocolate cake - - so rich and dark and GOOD!  Melissa ordered the creme brulee.  YUMMY!  TJ says at least he started and ended on an amazing note!  Next time, we ASK what everything means on the menu!