Saturday April 25, 2009

We were supposed to go to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast this weekend but the other girls decided not to for various reasons. I considered going alone but since I had been there on my previous trip to Italy I decided to save some money and do more touring of Florence. I’m sad the girls didn’t get a chance to go because it’s still one of my favorite places I’ve been in Europe. We still ended up having a great weekend.

This week all of the museums were free entry so we took advantage by spending most of the day at the Boboli Gardens and Pitti Palace. Erika and Mel both bought “Uffizi Passes” giving them unlimited access to a lot of the sights as well as the ability to jump the entrance lines so we all benefited! We explored the gardens first and then followed the Italian example of laying in grass for a little while before entering the palace. Both the palace and the gardens were equally lavish and impressive.

On the walk back to our apartment we stopped at a food festival going on in Piazza Santa Croce. There were tons of booths with different food stuffs from around Italy and a few from Germany: wines, pesto, olive oil, pastries, antipastos, jewelry, crafts, sausages, and everything in between. It was so much fun! For dinner we grabbed Sicilian Arancinis which were basically risotto and meat sauce formed into a ball then breaded and baked…they were very good but not something I’ll crave after leaving Italy. After learning the festival would be there for the entire week we knew we’d be stopping back for more treats.