Uffizi

I woke up this morning after enjoying a crisp 12 hours of sleep. I was up and ready to go. I had an espresso at the hostel and hit the road. It was cool walking through the busy streets in the morning while the shopkeepers were cleaning up from the night before and setting up their fresh produce, meats, and pastries in the windows. I arrived early to the gallery and was one of the first people in for the day. The uffizi was probably the best gallery I had ever been to and although the louvre was great it does not compare. Every single spec and corner of the gallery was covered in some well thought out, greatly engineered beautiful creation. And I mean from the ceiling beams to the damn sinks in the bathrooms. Ceilings covered in paintings with rooms filled with sculptures next to rooms filled with paintings in a building covered in marble and engulfed by outdoor statues. The sheer collective knowledge/effort over generations put into the gallery is what makes it astonishing. I don’t really like looking at paintings and I honestly don’t care about 16 year old da Vincis inner monologue. But this honestly has made me interested in medical and renaissance pairing. A sentence I never thought I would ever say. 

After the gallery I walked across the bridge with all the stores on it. I entered tourist town. I went into a suburb and got a cappuccino and croissant for €2. I had a weird ‘what I thought would be regular sandwich’ olive burger that was like biting into a salt lamp. I walked around the city gardens got another cappuccino saw a square I had not seen and returned to the hostel. I chatted briefly with an American staying in my room and learned about student debt in the US. He wanted to go dental and said that it would take him nearly half a million to get through his 4 years if he didn’t get into a state school. 

I went out in the afternoon and got my hands on a Schiacciata sandwich which is honestly and game changer. It’s basically focaccia but thinner with prosciutto/ barata/ arugula/ pistachios and whatever else. Probably the best sandwiches I have ever had. I have decided that the rest of my time in Florence is officially the sandwich tour. I will make one of this quality in my own home one day I tell myself. I went on a free walking tour. I was by myself and there was a danish family and a couple of African American friends. The tour guide immediately asked me if I was with the Danes because we looked so similar. This meaning that I may be able to disguise myself as any sort of Northern European if I just stand still not smiling and don’t speak. The tour guide was quite knowledgeable. After the tour I walked home and decided that I couldn’t go to bed yet as I needed a third sandwich. I am now writing this at 1am because I can not sleep as I am too excited about trying to decide which three sandwich shops I will visit tomorrow. I am already hyper obsessing over sandwiches. If the food is this good in Rome I might just skip sightseeing and narrow my sights in on every pizza place within a county mile.