Highlight: The food. Great lunch taken from a cafe and eaten in the piazza. Dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant where you don’t have a menu so you eat what the waiter suggests.
Lowlight: A disappointing visit to the Uffizi. I was tired, hungry, and didn’t appreciate most of the art.
Fun Fact: Florence Sucks. The audio guide at the Uffizi is a waste of time and money.
Money spent: €72.60
Ben Frustration Index(BFI): 1
Pairs of clean underwear left: 12
Book Page: Still Done

This morning we woke up much too early only to be greeted by thunder and rain, which seemed to echo the simmering resentment from our talk with the hotel manager the night before. We grabbed breakfast en route and made it to the Uffizi gallery for 7:45. At 8:15 the doors opened and the line started moving. By 9:15 we were inside.

We rented an audio guide, hoping it would add depth and intrigue to the art, but it sucked. We walked through every room, dutifully examined the art, but only liked a few pieces. Birth of Venus was really good, as were most pieces by Bottocelli, Leonardo, Raphael, and maybe a few other Ninja Turtles. After all the art we stumbled upon an exhibit about Leonardo Da Vinci, but it was long and by then we were tired, grumpy, hungry, and too bitter with Florence to enjoy much of it.

We had lunch at Mangiotoia – a little cafe that sold really tasty cafe food by weight. It was just south of the Palazzo Pitti.

After lunch, we wandered Florence. The rain kept coming and going. At one point it scared us into a cafe and we had cappuccinos standing at a cafe bar (which is half the price of sitting).

The weather was shitty most of the day. For dinner we took a Rick Steeve’s suggestion and ate at an authentic Italian joint. We didn’t get a menu at our table, but there was an open wine bottle. When we asked how much it cost, the reply was “after dinner, the boss will come, look at your glass, look at the bottle, and pick a number.” Rick Steeve’s suggested it was cheap, but the guide book was several years old and we were afraid, so we avoided the mystery wine. We had antipasto – a ton of meat all for Ben, bruschetto, cantaloupe, and veggies for me. My cantaloupe piece fell on the floor, and the guy beside me gave me the dirtiest look when I ate it anyway. It was too tasty to throw away. Ben and I had spinach and ricotta ravioli for our 1st plate and passed on the 2nds, which consisted of large slabs of meat. When we were done eating, the boss came, looked at our plates, asked what we had eaten, and came up with a number – 30 euros. Not bad for a good meal for 2 people.