Florence ... Day Fourteen

There was something I just loved about Florence.  I felt like this was a place I would want to come and stay for multiple weeks.  Our full day there started with our normal Italian breakfast of searching for a cappuccino and a croissant.  After finding a nice spot, we walked back to our hotel, checked out and left our bags in the lobby for the day.   I also remembered to snap a shot of our super awesome red room at our hotel. 

The one thing you have to see in Florence is the statue of David, so that was our first big task on day fourteen.  We walked our way there.  It was actually a lovely day and actually warmed up a bit.  After the long walk there, we finally made it to the museum.  Come to find out it's not open on Mondays, and day fourteen was a Monday.  Terrible planning on our part.  Well there wasn't much we could do about it.  We figured we'd save it for our next trip, right? 


Since that was a failure, D then suggested we look for this market that's supposed to be amazing.  Well, our luck, we couldn't find that either.  We were exploring the city, which was fun, and seeing all it's quarks, but not finding our destinations.  I loved the actual dual bike lanes.  We ran into an adorable park that we sat at for a while and watched the crazy ducks. 

We then decided to visit the church, Basilica Santa Croce, where Michelangelo and other famous artists are buried.  It's a gothic church and had quite of decor.  Most of the outside flooring was actually graves.  I saw lots of pieces that were really familiar, but I couldn't place their names from studying them in school.

It was hard to tell who's grave was who's.  This was the main altar that was under major renovation.

The ceilings are one of my favorite things about the churches in Florence.

Well, at least they rope off the areas in the ground so you don't trip over them!

I also was drawn to this huge lock system for their main doors.

Below you will see Leonardo Da Vinci's grave.

Once you leave the main church, which was freezing, we went out to this little courtyard space before exiting the tour.  I definitely sat and soaked up some of the sun before moving to the next area. 

There was one more spot that we almost missed at the very end of the courtyard.  It had some really amazing pieces in it.

We then went into the main basilica called the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore.  The outside itself is so lavish and pretty in the middle of Florence.  You can't help but be drawn to it. 

I loved the dome in the middle of this church.  The scene that it depicts is quite interesting. 

After waiting, probably too long, to have lunch we made our way to this super popular sandwich shop.  It was top rated on Travel Advisor and there was already a line when we got there.  Needless to say, it was amazing and well worth the wait. 

We both went in and just asked them to make something delicious.  Mine had sun dried tomatoes, greens and zucchini and D opted for a spicy sandwich. 

We took our sandwiches to go and walked a few blocks over to the water.  We sat up on the cement pillar and ate our yummy sandwiches.  It was the perfect day to sit out and just enjoy the day. 

We really didn't have any more plans for the afternoon.  We decided to venture around the famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio and see the other side of the city. 

Per typical of our day, we searched for a gellato shop and had the hardest time finding it.  However, we did eventually get to it, after going down some questionable alleys.  We sat in this little park and ate our gellato before going to pick out some wine.  In our search, we passed this wine shop and went back to try some wines to buy.  We asked to try some of the local favorites, and with their suggestions, we bought 2 bottles to take back home. 

We made our way, leisurely, back to the hotel to get our luggage.  We wanted to be a little early to the station, however, we made the mistake of going too early.   There was no food in the area, and we had too much time to waste. We ended up sitting in this large square and people watching.  We also got one last gellato before leaving Italy.   I also ended up playing with the camera a ton and taking silly pictures of each other.

Finally we got to board the night train.  It was definitely not as nice as our first one.  D had him on the lower bunk and I was on a top bunk. 

I was definitely scared of falling out of this one.  There was not a bar to keep you in, just a seat belt that hung down that was some how supposed to catch you.  If you look in the reflection you can see this stupid little belt.  Luckily, I was surprisingly tired and slept the night away with dreams of Paris.  

Rome & Florence ... Day Thirteen

Our last day in Rome we used to leisurely walk around and see a few items we had missed.  Of course, we first had to pack for the day, and that darn toilet was still running.  Even though I had told our contact, I still hadn't heard back from him.  We walked to the Victor Emmanuel Monument, and like the day before, we had espresso shots and croissants on the way there.

After looking around at all the historic items inside, we made our way up to the top of the building and realized there was a bike race ending.  It had such an amazing view of this side of the city. 

We finally got our last Rome walk in before heading back to grab lunch at the delicious sandwich shop we had the day before.  We got our luggage and took another crazy taxi ride to the Termini station.  Oh, D was so mad at the driver we ended up getting.  He started the conversation with asking how much it would cost.  We only had so many Euros left.  Well the driver took us (I'm pretty sure) a long way around and even charged us for putting our bags in and out of the car.  D was so angry and was arguing with the guy about it.  I can laugh at it now, but we basically were like, 'well that's all we got, so sorry!' and left. 

This was the Rome station, which is one of the only stations to still have the constantly flipping boards.  I loved it! 

The train ride to Florence was really quick, only an hour and a half.   We had some issues finding our hotel, because it literally was a tiny sign on a wall.  The actual 'hotel' was on the 5th floor and you had to climb the spiral stair case the entire way there. 

Once we checked in and unpacked, we decided to walk around a bit before dark.  It was Sunday, but I was amazed at how many people were in the streets.  It was completely covered, there was no room for vehicles.  I got some amazing shots of the city as we were walking through.  I was already in love with Florence.

We ended up walking to the Piazzale Michelangelo, which is this amazing panoramic view of Florence.  Absolutely gorgeous, and we just happened to get to the top right before the sun started setting.  We couldn't have planned it better if we tried.  We stayed up there an enjoyed the view a while after the sun set, but eventually headed back to the hotel to shower.    

Even on the walk back, Florence was just so pretty.  I couldn't help taking hundreds of pictures!

D made the mistake of letting me choose the dinner location.  I mentioned this before, but we tried to have one nice dinner at each city.  This was our full night, so we made the most of it.  I picked what looked like a super cute place.  We got all dressed and headed to find it.  We walked about 20 minutes away from our place, and I seemed to have picked a spot the farthest away.  We also started to walk through a questionable part of Florence.  We did eventually find the restaurant, but it was closed.  wtf. Rolling with the punches and laughing at ourselves, we found this cute little place right down the street.  We had the most delicious pasta and of course a bottle of wine.  We ended with this crunch chocolate dessert with cream and strawberries and bananas on top.  After all that walking, I think we needed the carbs! 

I got the truffle risotto and D got some really yummy pasta with sausage.  We both devoured our plates.

We ended up walking back through the main square and saw all sorts of night life, from people out eating and drinking to kids on the rides. 

We ended up back at our hotel, exhausted from all the travel and walking that day.