Firenze: Markets, the Duomo, and the Boboli Gardens

Our morning resumed again at the leather market, since we had the last 24 hours to stew over what other things we'd like to pick up. We dipped into a food market across the street from the market just as downpour lashed down on us all.

The market was loaded with Italian olives, meats, fish, bread, and tons of other goodies. 

After our morning of shopping, we wandered over to the cathedral to finally get a look at the interior of the duomo.

The ceiling is magnificent and dizzying, partly because of all of the detail and partly because I had to crane my neck aaall the way back to get a look.

A short walk away from the duomo is the Uffizi museum. I spent a few hours at this museum last year on my trip to Florence and was very excited to return to it again.  Sorry, no photos inside were allowed! But we saw lovely paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, Michelangelo, and of course Botticelli, to which an entire gallery-sized room in the Uffizi is dedicated.

Next stop was lunch. We went to a highly praised panini shop that is basically a hole in the wall.

Full of delicious tomato and mozzarella and crusty bread, we decided to check out the Boboli Gardens, a huge expanse of traditional Italian style gardens that flanks the back of the House of Medici. 

The gardens reminded me a lot of Versaille in their geometric design, but they were slightly more overgrown and less pristine. They were beautiful in a different way, however. The pathways felt like roads right into another world. It seemed like at every turn, we'd find an ancient Roman god lounging amongst the hills.

It also had fantastic views of rolling hills that made us stop for a moment and appreciate how beautiful Tuscany is. 

After a feast of mozzarella di bufala, fresh tomatoes, olives, pesto and bread on the terrace of our hotel, we all decided we were exhausted and in need of a nap. When we woke up later that evening, we pulled ourselves together to venture out for some dinner.

Our hotel recommended a restaurant down the street, which we all greatly enjoyed (but then again, when don't we enjoy a nice hot plate of food?). 

Exhaustion was setting in as we all began to realize that the last stop in our journey was approaching. Feeling the weight of 8 nonstop days of travel sinking in on us, we went back to our hotel a few hours later.