Summer in Denmark so far has been marred by overcast skies and rain. So it was a relief to Torsten, Trine and I to escape to the 40 degree cloudless skies of Florence (Italien: Firenze). Torsten's family has an apartment on the "other side" of the Arno River where Florence is situated. The capital city of the region of Tuscany, it has a population of around 400,000 people and was a center of European trade and finance during medieval times. The city is often considered the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and was long ruled by the Medici family and thus is also famous for its magnificent art and architecture. It is said that, of the 1,000 most important European artists of the second millennium, 350 lived or worked in Florence.

 

Anyways, we arrived around 2am and the first thing we did was open a bottle of wine "to help us sleep" , this would be repeated many times during out stay. The Kolind family's apartment had everything we needed, the game Settlers to pass our time while we hid away from the hottest parts of the day or after a night out, a beautiful outdoor dining area as well as comfortable chairs to recline and read a novel.

 

But we didn't spend all of our time in the apartment. The first day was spent walking around the city where we saw Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge: which has shops built upon its edges, held up by stilts), The Duomo (The cathedral in the center of town) where we walked the 400+ steps up the Campanile tower (Bell tower) with its view of all of Florence. We also saw the market where the fresh food part was unfortunately closed (as we wanted to buy some authentic Italian food), so we went to the supermarket instead. Which did not disappoint us at all! We bought all the things we needed for our snacks and lunches which was crusty bread with homemade creamy green pesto spread on top with our choice of either salami or prosciutto... mmmMMMMMmmmmmmm! The tomatoes are some of the best I've had as well! My mouth is watering just thinking about the food we ate in Florence!

 

We also walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo where we watched the sun set while talking about life with the beautiful city of Florence in front of us. An ice-cream and a drink later, we were ready for some more wine and the challenge of Settlers before getting some much needed sleep.

 

The second day, Trine and I went to book reserved tickets to the Uffizi (otherwise you line up for 4 hours), went shopping, then had lunch at home. Once the heat had subsided a bit, we then spent an hour walking through the Uffizi Gallery which houses some of the oldest and most famous artworks of the Renaissance. After being inspired by the art, we were motivated to taste some of the best Florentine cuisuine at a nearby restaurant. And we were not dissapointed. For the first course, I had some of the best homemade potato gnocchi, while Torsten had some Rabbit Ragout and Trine had a nice anchovy salad. We all chose the steak for dinner with one of their best reds to wash it all down. None of us were the least bit disappointed with the delicious dinner.

 

The last day, we hired a car to see some of the countryside. We made our way to San Gimignano; a small walled medieval hilltop town in Tuscany. It is mainly famous for its medieval architecture, especially its towers, which may be seen from several miles outside the town. But the highlight for me was eating lunch while overlooking the Tuscan countryside! The next stop was Volterra with even better views before we drove to Pisa to catch the flight back to cloudy and cold skies