Valentine's Day in Florence

Our four-day weekend plans got blown apart by work, but we still managed to salvage the situation and spend some good quality time together over Valentine's weekend. Neither of us cares too much about the holiday and didn't intend it to be a Valentine date or anything, but it was still quite lovely. With our ongoing car troubles, we haven't ventured too far from home the last several months, but we bit the bullet and had a rental car that weekend. Rather than taking the train, we decided to take a road trip!

The drive from our house to Florence was just about three hours south of where we are in Italy. Even though I've been there before, I was still somehow surprised to find myself driving through mountains on the way there. There was snow! And fog, lots of fog. Rather than getting an early start, we decided to be lazy, and arrived just a few minutes before lunch. We parked at the Fortezza di Basso and walked into the city center from there. Since we were in Florence, and hungry, of course we had to have a Florentine steak. Well, I take that back. Tony had a Florentine steak, which I ogled, and I had duck pasta. So much foooood! We each had the house red wine, which is usually a good call in Italy. Right again!

The Ponte Vecchio

Um, what?

We had no plan and no agenda, so after partaking of some delicious sustenance, we just wandered around. We attempted to buy tickets to the Uffizi ahead of time, but Tony got confused by the website and we decided we'd just do that once we got there. Big mistake. We elected NOT to stand in that line and instead just continued our meanderings. We took in the Ponte Vecchio and of course found the Duomo. (We elected not to stand in that line, either.) I also did a double-take and popped down a side street when I noticed some crazy sculptures. These things were all white, human bodies with animal heads. Some of them were on the street level and the rest were perched as if climbing the building walls or hanging from a tightrope. 

Duomo

Unaware that there was a chocolate festival going on, we were pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of vendors set up in one of the plazas. There were truffles, chocolate-covered fruits, cakes, ice creams, and all sorts of treats. We also stepped into an antique store and spent a few minutes browsing and talking with the owners. There were some demijohns and bottles from the 1800s, banister spokes, carvings, and beautiful paintings. If I ever win the lottery, I'm going back to that store! Fortunately, I don't have to win the lottery to head back to Florence, since it's so close and easy to get to. We debated stopping in Bologna for dinner on the way home, but we were just enjoying the road trip and decided to push on home. It was almost like "the olden days" when we used to make the 2.5 hour drive between Astoria and Lacey before we got married. I think it's true what they say; you should only marry someone if you travel well together! It was a small adventure, but a happy one.