We had a very pleasant two-night stay in Florence (Sunday and Monday). As I think I've mentioned previously, it was a really nice change from Rome - quiet and peaceful. And our hotel was especially peaceful, as it is located about a 15-minute walk along the river from the main sights. Our hotel room was traditional in style but large and comfortable, and the included breakfasts were pretty good.
And there was a fantastic family-owned restaurant just a few blocks down the road! We ate there the first night and it was so very delicious. It had a family feel and we were the only customers. It deserves a whole lot of pictures.
We had earned our dinner earlier that evening with a hike from our hotel up to San Miniato al Monte. Beware of any Italian church with "al Monte" in its name! This one is at the top of quite a steep hill. But it is so worth it. It's a really interesting church - Sarah loved it, too. It is dark and rather barn-like, but in a good way. It is covered in white marble and decorated with inlaid green marble designs inside and out. There are also some interesting frescoes, a big mosaic, and a crypt.
The hike is also rewarded with great views of Florence, although that was mostly obscured by fog during our visit...
We visited just three sights the following day, but all of them were great and I spent a long time at each one photographing the details. The memory cards were a-flyin'! Our first stop was the church of Santa Croce (Holy Cross), which has chapels filled with frescoes and the monumental tombs of several famous Renaissance figures, including Michelangelo, Galileo, and Dante.
But my favorite sight of the day was the one we visited next: the baptistery. It has all the marble goodness of the church on the hill, plus a ceiling full of golden mosaics. And photos are allowed! Yay!
After the baptistery we had a late lunch break at the Cafe Opera Duomo right next to the cathedral. I didn't expect the food to be any good because it's in such a prime tourist location, but it was fantastic! I had penne pomodoro and Sarah had fusilli al pesto, and both were excellent. Sarah's was the best, though.
Then we took a brief look around the cathedral, which is glorious outside (or it would be on a sunny day, at least) but not all that interesting inside...
...and then we climbed up to the dome. Not only up to the base of the dome, but to the very top! I don't know of any other cathedral where you can do that, and it was really weird (and steep) to climb up inside the dome itself. It was 436 steps, I think. Whew. The views of Florence from the top were amazing. We stayed up there as the sun went down, although it was cloudy so there was no sunset to speak of.
The stairs got much narrower and steeper as we began to climb inside the dome itself...
On the way home we stopped for gelato at an interesting little place run by a guy who spent a lot of time in Brazil and makes juices along with his home-made gelato. I had pistachio and it was fantastic.
The next morning, we got packed up and headed back to the train station for a two-hour journey to Venice.