One thing that’s really awesome about traveling in the low season is the no lines part. Today we woke up and decided to check out the Uffizi galleries. The guidebooks all warn  about insane lines and advise to book ahead. There weren’t any available reservations for today but we decided to give it a try anyway. It was raining pretty hard this morning so a perfect day to spend arting it up with Dave.

Everything is within walking distance of our hotel which is awesome. After breakfast we walked along the Arno which looks a little rough due to the recent storms to the galleries. No lines. We just walked right in. (Art-tastic high fives all around!)

Thanks to a great recommendation from a Christine we downloaded the Rick Steve’s free podcast to guide our visit. It always is so overwhelming when you go to famous museums like this and see masterpieces you can as about in books right in front of you (I.e. Venus on the half shell). It’s also an extra special experience going with Dave who likes to make up his own stories and histories of the various works, so special that it may need its own podcast someday called Arting with Dave.

After the Uffizi we went to the Duomo where there was a line. The line gave us a chance to admire the exterior of the Duomo, the campanile and the Baptistry which really are quite stunning. Then we went inside and I instantly remembered from the last time I was here when I was in middle school I think 1) how giant it is and 2) how drab it is compared to some of gilded palaces you see in Christiandom.

After the Duomo we headed back to the hotel on the non-touristy side of the Arno. We ate at Trattoria Cent’ori. Our surely waiter slammed down the menu which was a prix fix consisting of a primi and secondi for 10€. Thinking we ordered too much food, Dave got a pasta and Sara got soup followed by salt cod. It was all so good and we did not feel stuffed afterwards.

We rested this afternoon and in the early evening went back up in search of a haircut and beard trim for Dave. They were fully booked so we decided to meander towards cocktail hour which is where we write this post currently to you all, gentle readers.

Also, last night we walked around a bit on a super fancy shopping street before dinner then stopped in a dive bar full of expats called Green Street Bar. So full of expats that they take USD to Euro at a 1:1 exchange rate. One of the girls there let us cuddle her very adorable golden retriever/ dachshund mix named Sonny who was quite friendly and happy to oblige our current puppy snuggle deficiency. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant we found on Eater called Vivo. The food was ok but the restaurant looked like a mall food court. So yea…we’ll be moving away from Eater recos for the rest of the trip and relying on our tried and true method of finding good restaurants in Italy. If there are tradesmen there, it’s good. If there are dogs in the restaurant, also good.

Tomorrow morning we have an appointment for Dave to meet the David. A dopo!