[Yesterday, we were hiking in the Cinque Terre National Park]
June 3rd 2009, Florence
The sun shone and we sped the 20KMs towards Firenze. We parked at Piazzale Michelangelo and took our first lungful of Brunelleschi’s dome.
The dome totally monopolizes the Firenze skyline. In the last 700 years not a single structure has been built that is bigger – or prettier – than the bright orange-red dome.
The Florence skyline
Piazzale (pronounced pee-ah-tzha-lay) Michelangelo is an awesome spot to take in Firenze. It is atop a hill and provides a birds eye view of the Renaissance town from its vantage point. (The free parking is the smallest of the incentives).
We gawked at the bronze reproduction of David as we took bus# 12 connecting with #23 and landed on the south bank of Arno.
We found a nearby ristorante and ordered a Marinara. The waitress seemed perplexed that we ordered just one to be split between the three of us. (We later ordered two more when the 8 inch pizza disappeared under 5 minutes)
A pizza in Italy is a thing of wonder. It has the softest, thinnest and yummiest of crust, with a spread of tomato sauce, some olives and a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese. The flavors of the ingredients seem to coalesce in harmony ultimately leaving a predominant taste of bread on the palate The pizza is so thin that it can only be eaten folded and I wonder if I will ever be able to eat the thick crust cheese soaked thing they sell at Papa John’s.
Having washed down the pizzas with cold lemon ice tea, we headed towards the Uffizi.
