Galileo Museum

Monday night we headed to the Galileo Museum of scientific instruments. Mary and Mark recommended it as a cool and quick sight. There are instruments dating back to the Medici times, including this armillary sphere. They have some instruments and telescopes that were used by Galileo.





We met up with Heather and Konrad and their friend Jean at Trattoria ZaZa. We were a little early so we had fried artichokes that were amazing! For dinner I went with the trio sampler of Tuscan soups. They were pretty much edible with a fork!

Our First Full Day in Florence!

Yesterday was our first full day in Florence. Vio and I managed to leave the house decently early. We went to Accademia, had lunch on south side of the city at a GustaPizza, a place that had been recommended by one of Vio's friends, wandered the Arno a bit including heading over Ponte Vecchio, hit up the Uffizi, saw the city center at night, and had Egyptian fast food dinner with Konrad and Heather. (Delicious hummus and roasted eggplant stuffed pita...) Our schedule has been packed, so I just have time to show you a few photos...

The Arrival of the Sister

Yesterday I went to go pick Vio up at Malpensa! She made it! Our vacation is started!



We dallied a bit at my apartment, snacking and the like, and then we headed to Centrale. All the Christmas decorations are up in the station, I love this time of year.



We made it to Firenze with no hiccups. It was actually pretty easy to get up to the European University Institute, we caught the 1A bus with no problems. We met up with Heather and Konrad at their apartment complex, and then headed out to a little place in their neighborhood, Circolo, for pizza dinner.



I had the best eggplant pizza I've ever had! A good start to our vacation.

Zincs for the Memories!

Sorry for the bad pun! I had one photo left from the Science and Technology Museum that I didn't manage to share before.



As we were getting off the submarine, I noticed that there were zincs on it! The guide was excited that we noticed them and knew what they did. I just thought it was funny that they stuck zincs on submarines, but I guess submarines are big steel things and need rust protection! It really was a fun tour.

Monday Night

Monday I had to go to work. Boo. Well, I guess that's normal, right? Heather and Konrad headed to the Duomo to head up on the roof. I still wanna see their pictures from that! They were super brave and took the stairs... I've always taken the elevator! They had a lot of snacks and did a lot of shopping before I met them by the castle. We headed toward Corso Como to get dinner. We saw a lot of weird window displays!



We ended up going to Ganas, a Mexican restaurant. We were there early enough for aperitivo. Wow, it was a hit for us! They had great frozen drinks. I had two frozen passion fruit margaritas. Usually I only have one drink at aperitivo (because you only have to buy one to get the free food, but they do give you a slight break on the second drink), but the first one was so good that I wanted another! And, also the aperitivo was good enough that we wanted to sit and eat more. The selection wasn't huge, but it was pretty good. My favorites were the fresh tortilla chips, and the smokey chipotle salsa. The food was actually spicy! I might head there for aperitivo another night, since the food was so different from typical aperitivo. OK, it wasn't "real" Mexican, but it was good!

On our way home we checked out the display for the Nautical Design Awards there in Corso Como. Heather and I geeked out about winches and movable keels while Konrad humored us. It was a good night!

At The Science Museum!

On Sunday we had a relaxed morning, then headed out to Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci". We headed in to buy tickets and were able to get reservations for the submarine tour! Before entering the museum we had a quick lunch.

The museum was a hit with all three of us. I had been once before, but it's such a huge museum that there's always more to see. I always love the astronomical instruments. This telescope came from the observatory in Brera! It's hard to believe there used to be an observatory right in the center of Milan.



The telecommunications section is one of the best. There're interactive exhibits on radio transmission and lots of cool old equipment.



The highlight was our tour on the Enrico Toti submarine! Our guide said that he didn't speak much English, but he was pretty great! The sub is a diesel sub, and is a "pocket" sub. Quite tiny, really! I couldn't fathom working on there as part of a full crew of 23 or so. No elbow room at all.



We got to see the whole thing, from the electric motor in the tail, through the engine room, command center, kitchen, and up to the bunk area and torpedo tubes. We got to look through the periscope!



It was an awesome tour! We spent a good 5 hours in the museum. After, we headed over to BhangraBar for aperitivo, and boy did we stuff ourselves.

Saturday with Heather and Konrad

Heather and Konrad came to visit me from Firenze last weekend. They took the train up Saturday morning. After dropping off their bags at my place, we headed to the center. First we headed to get snacks, passing through the Galleria on the way. Heather spun for luck!



There are new displays at the Louis Vuitton store!



We were on our way to Luini's and Cioccolati Italiani to grab quick and delicious snacks before heading into the Duomo. (I tried a new flavor of panzerotto, with onions, olives, and tomatoes, yum!)



After the Duomo, we headed to La Rinascente to shop and dine. We spent a long time in the basement Design Super Market.



Konrad let Heather and I shop our hearts out. We had dinner up at Obika, the mozzarella bar on the 7th floor. We split a really good apple and fig salad and the mozzarella sampler for two. Yum!



We headed back to my house a little early, since the rain was still falling and trying to melt us!