If you’re new here, I’ve been sharing photos of my honeymoon in Italy until the wedding ’season’ starts up again. This blog is fairly new so there are a couple of engagement shoots up, otherwise my best wedding work is on the main site
We got up early on our third and final day in Florence. We decided to hit the museums today and our first stop was the Uffizi, home of, among other things, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. On our way there, we crossed a deserted Ponte Vecchio.
Despite getting up early, the line was ridiculously long. In the picture below, the entrance is near the far end of the photo, and we started on the opposite side…
We’d been in line for about an hour — and looking at least that much to look forward to — when a guy randomly picked us out of the line and offered us two tickets which would let us skip the line and head right in. How much? Not a penny – he said he’d bought them for a couple of friends who couldn’t make it or something… we were pretty skeptical – naturally. There was no way we were gonna get out of line only to find the tickets were fake and then have to go right to the back. Leah went to go check them out with a security guard at the entrance and they turned out to be legit! We couldn’t believe it – what luck!
So we went ahead and got in – unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but we spent a good part of the morning there. We went out afterward to stroll around and search for lunch.
Our next stop would be the Galleria dell’Accademia, home to Michelangelo’s David. Another long wait in line, made worse by the scorching hot sun that had come out by then. We took turns standing in line and standing in the shade. Eventually, I let Leah stand in the shade and simply resorted to tucking a map into my hat to keep my face out of the sun. Getting into the (air-conditioned!) gallery and seeing David in all its glory made the wait worth it. No photos allowed in here either unfortunately…
After that, we head to the Boboli Gardens – a sprawling park situtated behind the Pitti Palace. We took our time here. The heat was really getting to us, and we meandered through the gardens up to a lookout point, and just sat for a while and enjoyed the view.
without a doubt, one of my favorite pictures of us:
After wandering through the maze of the of the other half of the gardens, we explored the city some more, eventually settling down on one of the bridges to catch the sunset over the river.
After that, we went out for a fantastic dinner at a restaurant called La Maremma (sp?). If you’re ever in Florence, you simply cannot leave without eating there first. The night was warm and pleasant so we took our time getting back home, visiting some of the markets and picking up a couple of souvenirs. I knew I’d be sorry to leave Florence. It’s still my favourite city in Italy – maybe anywhere – but nothing would prepare me for where we were going next…
mike
ps — I thought it’d be a bit disingenuous to post this without mentioning the earthquake in L’Aquila. Last I checked, the death toll was nearing 250, with many more injured, and many many more left homeless. My heart truly goes out to the people over there, and to everyone who has family or friends there.
by mike
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