Quest for Pizza, Featuring the Ponte Vecchio

I wrote earlier on Thursday to tell you about my first museum expedition in Florence, just a week after arriving. After leaving the Student Center (where I was doing the updating) I went back to the apartment and met up with Katie to scope out the €5 pizza place called "Gusto Pizza" on the opposite side of the Arno. At first we weren't sure about going since we live well north of the main portion of the city, but we decided that authentic (and cheap!) pizza was well worth it.

We walked through the city center past the Duomo, Casa Alegheri and Piazza della Signoria and walked along the Arno until we got to the Ponte Vecchio. The bridge we needed to cross was the next one over, but we strolled the Ponte Vecchio (architected by Giorgio Vasari) since we hadn't yet had the pleasure of walking it. Back when it was first created, it was home to shops of butchers and bakers (and candlestick-makers) who would throw all of their waste into the Arno. When the Medicis grew weary of the mess (especially because of the proximity of these shop owners to the governmental offices [Uffizi] and the Palazzo Vecchio) they evicted these owners and put in their place 41 goldsmiths and jewelers, all of whom continue to operate shops on the bridge to this day! It was not yet dark and about half of these shops were still open when we walked by, but I didn't take pictures until later that evening, when all had closed up shop (much in the same way that they would have in the 15th century!), and many of the lights of the city had come on.





Back to Pizza! We didn't know the exact location of the shop but we stumbled upon quite quickly. We were invited in and ordered two Margherita Pizzas (molto bene!). Our order number was cinquantacinque. While we waited a gentleman from the establishment walked by with a large bowl of fried and salted bread and offered us some, it was extremely tasty--very much like popcorn! I watched as they made our pizzas and took video of them putting the pies into a large brick oven, tuscan style! Here are some pictures of the establishment and a video of the oven:

Sidenote: Not exactly sure what was going on tonight, but there were fireworks going off by the Duomo. I wish I could have gotten to see them, but I have to get to bed slighlty early this evening because we are going to Venice tomorrow (expect lots of pictures!) and we have to trek to the far west side of the city to meet everyone who's going at the train station. When we arrive we have a choice of going to the Accademia of Venice or to the Peggy Guggenheim collection.

I don't know which one I want to go to yet--the Accademia has Leonardo's "Vetruvian Man" and a few famous works by Giorgione, but I don't know if I can pass up Picassos, Pollocks and Kandinskys. I'm not a huge fan of contemporary art, but it would be nice to see some if I'm going to be stuck in the 13th to 17th centuries here in Florence... not that that is a bad thing! I'll blog about it to let you know which one I ended up going to.

P.P.S. I'm booked a trip to Capri and Pompeii at the end of the month! I couldn't pass up seeing Pompeii knowing that I am soooo close (the other incentive was hearing that there were only 10 seats left). Now I just have to find a swimsuit... not for Pompeii, for Capri! : )