4-11-09 Florence Day 2

Since breakfast isn’t included with our lodgings in this city, we were forced to find our own. Rather than try and find a restaurant nearby that was cheap enough, we opted to try and make our own at a market. This worked out great – we were able to put together a decent meal for only 6€ between the two of us. It consisted of gnutella, jam, croissants, bananas, and blood orange juice. We don’t have the facilities for making coffee or we might have had that as well. We do have these little instant espresso shots, but without a way to boil water and with no cream or sugar it just isn’t happening. Probably some lucky person will get one as a gift, since we are tight on money and gifts have to come on the cheap.

On the other hand, a simple can of soda can cost as much as 3.10€ in touristy areas. I forgot what that works out to in USD but it is probably about $5.

Today we went to the Santa Croce where many famous people are entombed. We saw Galileo, Michelangelo, an empty tomb of Dante (his remains have since been transported elsewhere), and Machiavelli, who I was most excited to see. Unfortunately, out of the dozen or so tombs, Machiavelli’s was one of only two that were being restored and were thus covered by scaffolding. I bought a postcard with a decent picture of it as a small consolation.

After this visit we splurged on lunch in the courtyard outside the Santa Croce. We had a bruschetta, which had some delicious tomatoes on it. This was the first time in my entire life that I’ve enjoyed any tomato, ever. We also had a calzone, which was pretty good. We were offered coffee after the meal, something that seems to be common in Europe.

We saw some amusing sights – vendors selling knickknacks on a small towel or sheet laid on the ground, who promptly scoop the whole thing up and book it whenever they see the police coming. Apparently getting a license to sell stuff is too expensive?

After this we hit the famed Uffizi Gallery, home to such masterpieces as Bottecelli’s Spring and The Birth of Venus. We waited in a really long line to walk through a small room called the Tribuna, which has some special significance but, lacking a guide or a tour, we were not sure what it was. One thing about museums like this – not only are they are filled with works of art on the walls and floors, but the ceilings are always entirely painted with dazzling scenes. It is sensory overload to try to take this all in.

After this, we finally found an internet point in the back room of a bookstore and checked our email. The heat is on to get your internet work done with 15 minutes between two people, knowing you won’t have access to it again for at least 24 hours. One of our main goals was to locate Machiavelli's old office, which we had thought was in the Uffizi but unfortunately it wasn't.

We found it in the Palazzo Vecchio. I had a quiet moment with one of the greatest political thinkers of all time. This was easily the highlight of my day.

By dinnertime, we were totally exhausted and near the limit of our daily budget. Almost all of the restaurants around our hotel were closed. Just when we thought all hope of finding dinner was lost, we happened upon a vending machine that microwaves and dispenses small pasta dishes for you. We had a tortellini dish and a panne e prosciutto. For about 3.50€ each, they weren’t bad.