Today was a welcomed relief after yesterday a.k.a. The Day of Exhaustion. We woke up bright and early, enjoyed coffee on our final day of the terrace, then headed outward on the windiest road I’ve been on in my life. Here’s a screenshot of Apple Maps to prove it!
We had a 2 1/2 hour drive to Florence ahead of us, but had to kill some time before we could check in with our AirBnB, so we made a pit stop at Lucca. Before today, I had never heard of it. But Amanda and I really loved it’s charm! Not to mention the fact that we stumbled into the only vegan restaurant in town (!), Nanda’s, and had a great lunch.
By early afternoon we were on our way to Florence. The driving has been smooth sailing so I’m definitely glad we went the way of the rental car rather than bus or train. Actually — the driving was smooth until we got into Florence! Trying to navigate signs in another language while also not totally getting the driving culture is already a challenge in itself, but add in the fact that we have to avoid driving in certain areas of the city (a common thing across Italy, picture shown) to avoid massive fines makes our driving anxiety a bit worse. 🙂
That said, we eventually made it to our AirBnB, enjoyed a night strolling around the city, enjoying some vegan food and getting some dessert. Unfortunately, most of the restaurants we wanted to go to are closed for summer holidays (?!), but we did find a decent place called Trattoria Ezo & Piero Firenze. We had some excellent pasta with seitan, roasted vegetables, white beans, and of course bread with olive oil. Then for dessert, we decided to go All-American and All-Ironic and go to “1950 American Diner” for some vegan apple pie. The pie sucked, but the atmosphere was hilarious, especially noticing where they went wrong with the American “nostalgia,” like the “no U-turn” sign pinned to the wall that’s hung on sideways!
We’re excited to explore more of Florence tomorrow!
Also, we found this street sign art to be hilarious.
2 Vegans 2 Backpacks 