A statue outside the Uffizi Museum
One of the best meals we had was at Il Latini
Day 9: Friday, April 13, 2007
The Uffizi Museum and a Great Italian Lunch
As I mentioned earlier, Florence is packed with tourists. This fact was evident when we stood in line for over an hour to get into the Uffizi Museum. It was worth the wait though. The Uffizi houses works by some major artists — Botticelli, Michelangelo, and the like. It also serves as home to the "Primavera" and the "Birth of Venus" among countless 'Virgin Mary with Jesus' paintings. We opted for the audio guide through the museum, but it turned out to be almost as confusing as it was helpful. Still, we stood in awe examining the countless great works on the walls of the Uffizi.
We walked back by the Ponte Vecchio on our way to a recommended restaurant called Il Latini. Friday the 13th was turning out to be our lucky day because the restaurant we chose was the best place we'd eaten so far. It was family-style so the waiter brought out heaping helpings of penne and ravioli for our "primi" (first course) that we all shared. Everyone was stuffed, but Courtney and Nick just had to try the roasted chicken for the "secondi" (second course), which turned out to be perfectly done. At the end of our meal, the waiter served us a sparkling dessert wine which was very sweet, but enjoyable. We had a little side bet going about what our final bill would come to. Needless to say, we were worried. The entire meal ended up only costing €60, far cheaper than some other meals we've had. Il Latini is a place we would recommend to anyone visiting Florence.
After lunch we had some planning to do. Courtney and Nick headed back to the hotel to mooch off of the Internet connection some more. We successfully booked a place for the next leg of our trip — Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera. Tommy, Shea and Caitlin walked to the bus station to pick up tickets for our Siena day trip planned for Saturday. After getting this housekeeping out of the way, we made our way to our new home for the night, the Central Beds hostel.
After checking into the hostel, we stopped by an Internet cafe to catch up on a little work. Then we walked around for a while looking for a place to eat. After such a great lunch earlier in the day, we ended up at a pizzeria that we would not recommend. However, the place did serve gigantic beers, just like we enjoyed at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich. Our bus was set to leave at 8:10 the following morning, so after dinner we called it an early night.