Day 4.5 in Firenze

I know I already blogged once today, but I felt like I just had to tell you about the rest of my evening. Tonight some of the girls in the program were craving Taco Bell. Well, after hitting up tacobell.com and Googling like crazy, it turns out that is impossible to enjoy a cheesy gordita crunch east of the border...or at least not in Florence. Seeing as Taco Bell did sound kinda good (I know, I know: that's blasphemy while in Italy), we decided that we would hit up a highly recommended (and probably one of the few) Mexican joints in Firenze. The place was called Tijuana and was located relatively close to the Palazzo Vecchio (the seat of the Florentine government, pictured below), which is about (I guess) 1.5 miles from our hotel. So the girls, my roommate, and I headed out for an early dinner (it was about 7pm, but Florence people eat late).

Lucky for us, the place had happy hour from 7-8pm and we arrived just after 7:30. A round of margaritas per favore! I ordered a margarita amarilla which came frozen, included galliano, and was garnished with blueberries and a lime (no salt). And I have to say that this margarita was one of the most delicious margaritas I've ever had. Something about the slight hint of vanilla made the drink a little sweeter and oh so amazing sliding down the back of my throat. The rest of the menu was kinda interesting so I just went with the safe bet of a plate of nachos with chicken. It was a little small, but scrumptious nonetheless. Three of the others ordered quesadillas which they claimed were quite tasty as well. They all cleaned their plates, so who I am to call them liars? It turns out that you can get good Mexican food in Italy and it was a nice break from the pizza, pasta, and prosciutto regime (the three inescapable P's of Florence as I have found). Rest assured that I will be consuming at least one of those items again tomorrow.

After dinner, it turned out that a couple of us were still hungry for dessert. On the way to the restaurant (and on other occassions), we had seen gelaterias serving gelato on top of actual waffles. We decided this sounded appetizing and set out trying to find one such store. Turns out that the search was pretty difficult. We found plenty of places selling gelato, but couldn't find the ones with waffles. How in the world could we pass several of these places on our way to dinner and then not be able to find a single one when we were ready to actually indulge in them ourselves? So we walked around for close to half an hour before finding a place. All three of us still standing (two went home because they didn't want dessert and were tired of walking) ordered our much sought-after waffle topped with gelato. Turns out that while messy, it is quite a yummy combination. Not sure it will top the Belgian waffles I will be having in a few weeks, but it was very satisfying nonetheless. And oh yeah, after finally finding a store with waffles, we walked past at least 4 more over the next 5 minutes. Figures...

That's enough about food for today. You'd think I do nothing but eat and blog in Italy (and you'd be right!). Besides the Palazzo Vecchio, the pictures below include one of a replica of Michaelangelo's David and Neptune's Fountain. The real David now rests in a museum and supposedly you cannot take pictures of it. The original statue of David was located outside until sometime in the 1800's. They decided to move it to an indoors location to protect it from the weather. Keep in mind this thing is 15ft. tall and weighs close to 10,000lbs. According to our tour guide, they had to tear down several buildings along the path that they dragged David to his final resting place. Huh, all that work just so the world can enjoy a naked man carved in stone. All kidding aside, the replica is impressive enough with its size and incredible detail that I can't wait to see the real one. Italians do love their nude statutes though. As for the foutain of Neptune, Florentines apparently hate it. I can't remember why they hate it, but I though it was actually kinda cool.

These pictures were taken in the Piazza Vecchio, right outside of the Palazzo. Enjoy! Ciao.