Tutti a Firenze!

Ciao a tutti!

 Program Leader Andrew here with a new blog post, this time a summary of our overnight in Florence, the capital city of the Italian region known as Tuscany.

Our navigators boarded the train at Rome's Termini station for the Tuscan capital bright and early on one of Italy's most modern and high speed trains, the Frecciarossa. After an hour and a half we rolled in to Florence's Santa Maria Novella station and then walked immediately to our hotel which would host us for the next day and a half. 

After a brief walk to orient ourselves, our young travellers headed to the Galleria degli Uffizi, one of the world's most important musesums, where they were able to learn about and observe works by masters such as Botticelli, Donatello and Caravaggio. After the Uffizi, our youngsters enjoyed an outdoor lunch of schiacciate, a sandwich on focaccia, purchased from one of Florence's most popular lunch spots. Next up was a visit to the Galleria dell'Accademia where we able to bask in the glory that is Michelangelo's David.

The evening would bring another walk, this time for gelato and a visit to Florence's famous Ponte Vecchio before dinner at a very typical Tuscan restaurant in Piazza di Santa Croce. 

After a good night's sleep, we returned to Piazza Santa Croce for a visit to another Florentine restaurant where our navigators partcipated in a cooking lesson. Our young chefs made gnocchi and pizza, then we all sat down to enjoy their creations!

Next on the agenda was a visit to Florence's San Lorenzo district for shopping and sight seeing followed by a return to Rome at the conclusion of our Tuscan holiday.