We had started our second day in Florence with a sunny walk towards the Piazzale Michelangelo. It had been a lovely morning already and the day would even get better with our plans for the afternoon: a visit to the Galleria degli Uffizi!

You’ll find the Uffizi gallery when you walk from Ponte Vecchio towards Piazza Vecchio. You really can’t miss the beautiful building that is decorated to the brim with statues, and surrounded by tourists. And you’ll definitely don’t want to keep staring at the outsides of the building: you’ll want to go in. We had wanted to visit the gallery the day before, but the line was long, so we decided to book some (timeslot) tickets for the next day.

The Uffizi gallery is one of the oldest and most important art galleries in the world. The building originates from 1581 and as it is with most galleries in Italy, the building itself is a masterpiece as well. Make sure to look up to the ceilings and the wall art, for they can be just as beautiful as the artwork that is displayed. Most of these pieces used to be owned by the Medici family, and have been gifted by the last heiress of the family, Anna Maria Luisa.

I really liked the gallery. There were some beautiful pieces on display. The central hallway on the upper floor contained mostly statues and busts from the classical era, whereas the rooms surrounding them displayed gorgeous paintings from different periods, as did the lower floor.

I bought a gallery guide so I could learn a little bit more about the artworks that I liked best. There were some beautiful and famous paintings, such as Sandro Botticelli’s La primavera and The birth of Venus. Other artworks that I really liked were Caravaggio’s Medusa and Piero di Cosimo’s Perseus liberating Andromeda.

After leaving the Uffizi (we had to make haste, for the gallery suddenly closed half an hour earlier) we felt like we deserved some gelato so we sat down at the Piazza Vecchio where I had yet another vanille gelato, before heading back to our hotel.

We didn’t leave the hotel for the rest of the night. I suddenly felt a bit homesick and pressured and wanted to stay in. So boyfriend got us some pizza at Osteria dei Centopoveri which we enjoyed in the solitarity of our room, while watching How I met your mother. The pizza was really good and even though we didn’t actually eat at the restaurant, I would highly recommend this one, for it was the best pizza I’ve ever had.