Posts Tagged by Una Hotel Vittoria
Rain in Florence
| April 1, 2009 | Posted by Angela under My Travel Adventures, The Arts, Film, Music, Fashion |
We arrived in Florence just in time for a late evening dinner. We stayed at the Una Hotel Vittoria which is about a 20 min walk to the city center. This hotel was ultra modern with optical lights in the bedroom, a massive glass door shower (see through to the bedroom) with the bathroom all decked out in the color purple. It is definitely not a hotel for a family with children – unless you want your kids to watch you take a shower.
We dropped off our bags and got ready for dinner. The front desk recommended a restaurant named Sergio’s located down the street. We walked down the street and actually passed it up the first time. We turned around and finally found the sign. It is a tiny little restaurant packed with people. Luckily there was a table for two still open. When we sat down, we were practically sitting with the couple next to us because the tables were so close. It was actually uncomfortable NOT to speak to them.
The waitress went through the entire menu with us and explained their specials. She was super nice and accommodating. We ordered the meat and cheese plate for our anitpasta. I had the special: pasta made out of potato with Bolognese sauce. Jason had the spaghetti with pesto and artichokes. We then had our main dish, peppered beef. Seriously, this was the very best meal we had out of all the restaurants.
The atmosphere was great – warm, friendly loud, the service was outstanding, and the price was so inexpensive.
So back to the tightness of the tables. Our neighbors realized that we were speaking English and they happened to be from Washington state. We visited with them during our dinner. The husband was there on business and his wife joined him. We talked about our trip and what we have done thus far. Great conversations.
The next day, we visited the Accademia and the Uffizzi Gallery. The Accademia in Florence holds the one and only original David – standing at 16ft tall. It was mighty impressive and surpassed my expectations. We were not allowed to take photos, of course I did, but the photo did not come out as great as I wanted.
The Uffizi Gallery was also very impressive holding masterpieces such as the Medusa, Birth of Venus, Annunciation and Two Angels. We were somewhat galleried out (if that is a term). The Uffizi Gallery is located in one of the main plazas -Palazzo degli Uffizi . This plaza is filled with statues – mostly replications such as the David. We wandered around the statues and plaza.
Then we headed to the San Lorenzo plaza where there is an outdoor leather market. Florence is known for their Italian leather goods. This was the first we had the opportunity to shop. We walked to the food market as well scoping out olive oil and wines. Then of course it rained. It wasn’t cold so it wasn’t uncomfortable. Everyone was just wandering around with their umbrellas.
Although we had an umbrella, we managed to get pretty damp.
We headed back to the hotel to dry off and get ready for dinner. We went to another restaurant called L’Osteria Giavanni located in the city center. We didn’t have reservations but they did have an open table for us. It was excellent and something they do different is their bread – it’s fried. Yum! It was so addictive. I don’t know how the Italians stay so slim and beautiful. Oh ya, they have to walk everywhere and climb endless steps.
The next day we had a bicycle tour scheduled to go through the Tuscan countryside and do a Chianti vineyard tour. It was daylight savings so we had to wake up an hour early. When I woke up, I heard drops on the window. I looked out and saw that it was still raining. I called the guy doing the bicycle tour and he said that it’s best to cancel because the rain is scheduled to go on all day. Bummer.
We slept in a little more debating on what to do that day. We decided to catch the train to see the Pisa. So we saw the Pisa. Everything you’d expect. Not much else to do in Pisa.
We came back to Florence and wandered the streets a bit more. We then headed back to Sergio’s because we loved it so much. They remembered us. We felt like family.
We packed that night and got ready for our train ride back to Rome.
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