We arrived in Florence by train at lunch time, but staved off hunger to explore the Santa Maria Novella church near the station. We instantly recognized the clean, geometric exterior which, like other buildings in Assassin’s Creed 2, were faithfully digitized in the game. Afterwards, we enjoyed an amazing lunch deal at Trattoria il Contadino, where the prix fixe menu includes homemade pasta and juicy swordfish for a mere 10.5 euro a person. Fortified, we visited Museo Galileo to get nerdy with ancient instruments for navigation, medicine, and physics, then at Santa Croce to peruse the tombs of famous Florentines including Galileo, Michelangelo, and Dante. Exhausted, we took a nap in the courtyard before a long trek back to our faraway hotel and a light dinner of Schiacciata pizza. The next morning began with a workout just short of insane – a 460-step climb up the Duomo to arrive, slick with sweat, at a beautiful panoramic view of Florence. After stopping by the Duomo Museum and checking out the impressive doors of the Baptistery, we crossed to San Lorenzo to the Medici Palace and Chapels, where we found that Ezio’s rescue of Lorenzo the Magnificent during the Pazzi Conspiracy allowed him to live another 14 years. We stopped for a low-key lunch at Trattoria Mario including a whole octopus for Melody, before checking out the Museum of San Marco and the Accademia, which houses Michelangelo’s David. For dinner, Trattoria Cibreo served up tomato bread soup, creamy mushroom soup, cheese flan, codfish mousse, and a potato gratinee. Although everything was essentially mush, it was all delicious mush. On our last day, we ran into a friend’s parents at the here.