We’re still not totally adjusted to European time, and the 8am alarm came early today.  We had to be up and about to get to our 9am reservation for the Uffizi museum.  Last time we were in Italy you could just pay your money and wander in to any museum you wanted, but these days you need to reserve well in advance.  Nadia is in class this morning, but the rest of us managed to straggle out a bit later than planned.

Our tardiness ended up working out in our favor.  When we arrived there was a long, long line of people in a line marked “9:30”, but the “9:15” line was completely empty and we were able to just waltz through (with our 9am tickets; fortunately they’re not too dogmatic here).  There were a LOT of people in the Uffizi, and we got a little overwhelmed by the crowds at first.  The rooftop museum cafe, with its views over Florence, looked very inviting — and we hadn’t had time for coffee this morning.  A pleasant

View from our cafe table

interlude with cappucinos (excuse me, cappucini, as the waitress informed me) was just what we needed.

Once we got away from the crowds a bit, the museum was very pleasant.  Lanie, our resident artist, educated us on the techniques used in the paintings.  Bob has been reading a book about the artists of the Renaissance and was able to provide us with many fun facts about what we were looking at.  I just trailed along for the ride, not contributing anything, but enjoying the beautiful architecture and artwork.

Amazingly, we’ve gotten to the point where we’re ready for a break from pasta and pizza, so we went to an excellent taco place Nadia recommended for lunch.  Then we got to check out Nadia’s apartment.  It’s a pretty sweet arrangement — just a couple of minutes walk from the center of everything (Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Vecchio) — and her room had a large open window looking out over the river.  (I will never not be jealous of these Europeans who can have wide open windows with no screens, and somehow no bugs.)  Her apartment is also fairly close to the Brandy Melville store, which was a big draw for Lanie.  Apparently the Brandy Melville store in Florence has different merchandise than what you can find on the Branch Melville website, or the Brandy Melville Boston store.  Looking for Lanie in there was a challenge, because the store seemed to a veritable sea of little Lanies, with long straight flowing hair and white tank tops everywhere you looked.

For the afternoon Nadia joined us for a pasta and tiramisu-making class at a nearby restaurant.  We learned some excellent Italian cooking tips from our very skilled and entertaining teacher, though there was also a lot of wine involved so we possibly won’t remember them.  We’re not sure whether the ravioli and tagliatelle we were served at the end was actually what we’d made, or whether they’d immediately thrown that away and given us something made by more highly skilled people, but either way it was delicious.

We made one last stop on the way home — the Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy, the world’s oldest pharamacy (established in 1221).  According to my Atlas Obscura book, you could buy salves and potions made with 800-year-old recipes, but we mostly saw extremely high-priced modern lotions.  (I think they’ve really cashed in since being publicized in Atlas Obscura.)

…but not that impressed with the merchandise.

Cool architecture…

Though we declined to pay upwards of 40 euros for a bottle of hand lotion, the architecture was amazing and we at least could say we’d checked it out.

We were supposed to meet Nadia at a bar to watch a soccer game at 9pm, but we are all somewhat weighed down by pasta and tiramisu and wine, so I think we’re calling it a night.