Buon giorno, Firenze!

When I made the plans to study abroad in London, I had no idea that I would be so lucky as to get to return to Italy. It hadn't been in my original plans at all, but when my friends suggested it, there was no reason at all to turn it down. I loved studying in Rome last year and have been wanting to return to Italy since. While studying in Rome, I spent a day in Florence, and I feel especially lucky that I've gotten to return there this year.

 

Last year, I visited with the other NU students on my "Dialogue" to Rome. I bought my leather jacket in the San Lorenzo market!

For my friends visiting with me, this was their first time in Florence. As I was only there one day last year, I didn't remember too much about the geography of the town, but I could get us to the world famous San Lorenzo leather market, our first stop in the morning on Friday.

This market basically puts all other markets to shame. It starts at the San Lorenzo church and covers street after street, packed to the brim with gorgeous leather goods and other souvenirs. The best part about the market is that it's pretty easy to haggle and get a good deal, and the prices to begin with are usually pretty reasonable. As long as you know where to look, it's quite easy to get yourself an authentic piece of Italian leather with the Firenze stamp on it, whether you fancy a purse, wallet, jacket, or belt.

After perusing the market for a solid 2 hours, we returned to our hotel, laden with gifts for friends, family, and maybe a few here and there for ourselves. Our stomachs were grumbling and next stop was lunch!

We sat outside because it was a marvelous day in Florence and we all had steaming big bowls of ribollita. Ribollita is a hearty Tuscan stew, loaded with hunks of bread, cannellini beans, and delicious veggies. It's a peasant dish, basically comprised of cheap foods and meant to be really filling. It's the dish you'd want to eat over and over again throughout the cold winter months.

We walked through the Piazza del Duomo on the way to our free tour centered around the Medici family.

The Medici family has shaped Florence into the city it is today. They began as very rich residents, wealthy because of their bank ownership. This wealth soon earned the family political influence over Florence, further propelling them towards greater power over the Tuscan capital. They produced several popes, 2 French regent queens, and countless dukes and duchesses.

The Medici's are a very old family in Florence and although the last Medici died in 1737, their marks are still visible all over the city. Anytime a cluster of spheres are visible on the outside of a building, you can be assured a Medici lived there.

With their wealth came a threat to their safety. At the end of their years as a power in Florence, the Medici family had built an entire network of hallways that stretched from the Palazzo Vecchio (old palace), across their offices (now the world famous Uffizi museum), down a block along the Arno River, across Ponte Vecchio (Florence's Old Bridge), down the road and ending at the House of Medici, which actually is not a house but another palace. This way, the family never had to leave their home and put themselves in danger.  

After soaking up some Florentinian history, we made our way back to Ponte Vecchio to admire the river.

Our tour guide was an Italian local and gave us the recommendations for the best gelaterias in the city. Of course we had to test it out for ourselves!

Approvals all around. 

Next was a brief break with a slice of pizza on the steps of the duomo.

We then took the other recommendation of our tour guide to run up to Piazzale Michelangelo for the sunset, a hilltop square that surveys the entire region.

That evening, we rubbed shoulders with locals at Aperitivo. You pay a fixed price (we paid 7 euro) to get any drink on the menu and with it comes a buffet.

We then grabbed dessert a restaurant down the street and spent hours at the table (in true Italian style) just chatting the night away.