More Pasta, More Pizza, More Beer/Wine, and More Florence!

After a quick train ride, we made our way to Florence, Italy.  I was really excited to head here, as I came here with some of my study abroad friends about oh, six years ago.  We got into Florence in the evening (I think...timing is starting to blur together).  Our hotel was one of our favorites, as it was near the train station, had a balcony with a great view, and great breakfast.

 You can see the Florence Cathedral and a few more churches from our balcony!

Panoramic view from our room. 

We walked around the city, took a few photos, and headed straight to Piazzale Michelangelo, which was where one of the replicas of The David stood.  I remembered this area during my time there with friends because we were lost for a long time, and all of a sudden there was this amazing view and The David was lit up.  It totally changed all of our moods.  So I knew I wanted to take Jeff back to that spot as it was breathtaking at night.

 Sunset at the Piazza 

One of the replicas of The David

Getting good use out of the self-timer...although we normally look pretty odd to people passing by: "Why are they smiling at that post?"

We were able to enjoy the scenery, then walk back towards the city centre for dinner.  On our way back down we kept hearing some popular music being played in a small park area.  We decided to check it out.  A young woman and man were playing/singing on a small stage. The audience was drinking, eating, and enjoying themselves at these quaint tables in this park.  We grabbed a couple beers and enjoyed the music. Jeff and I were enjoying ourselves so much that we sat their for an hour or two (or more?).  Shocker...I was losing track of time. Anyway, this ended up being one of our favorite times in Florence because it was relaxed and we could slow down the tourist mode we get into sometimes.  Afterwards, we grabbed a quick dinner (sandwiches & pizza) and then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning, Jeff had tickets to see the real David.  I decided to not "waste" the money, as I had already seen the massive statue.  I walked around, stopped in shops, and enjoyed the city while he went in there for about 30 minutes.  Jeff said he enjoyed himself, and was surprised that you could take photos.  I had told him that I was not able to take pictures when I went there 6 years ago, and now apparently you can.  So no pictures of the both of us, but Jeff got a few selfies with The David.

 Over 13 feet tall. 

Jeff's selfie with David

We decided to head to The Florence Cathedral.  It was a free entrance fee and extremely crowded.  Although it was absolutely beautiful, our experience wasn't the best as there were people everywhere.  You were dodging people, and trying to take pictures at the same time.  Jeff opted out of climbing the duomo, and I had already done it before.

Beautiful!

We decided to head to the market so I could do some shopping next! I had my eye on a new bag...surprised, anyone? and a maroon scarf that I had been looking for locally.  I ended up with a brown multifunctional leather bag and a maroon scarf.  I was pretty pleased with my purchases and got the prices down pretty low. Wahoo! 

[No pictures here...but I'm sure you'll see them make their debut in future posts!]

Next on our agenda was visiting a plaza area, grabbing lunch, and heading to yet another church.  Lunch was one of my favorites during our time in Italy.  I had a potato filled tortellini with meat sauce, and Jeff enjoyed a penne dish.  We also enjoyed a bottle of wine, which it and the rest of the food came from a local farm.  We really enjoyed that experience as it was a quaint place with great food.  We found the 2nd replica of The David in the Piazza della Signoria as well as a statue of Zeus or it might have been Hercules. We just went with Zeus...

 Another replica of The David

 Spending time in this busy square

Zeus or Hercules? We are overruling and saying Zeus!

We went into our last church in Florence, Basilica of Santa Croce.  It was beautiful, as they all are in their own ways.  We especially enjoyed the courtyard area.  Jeff and I sat down and enjoyed the area and the beautiful day.

 Basilica of Santa Croce

 Pretty impressive entrance, right?

The courtyard area

We headed all the way back towards our hotel to see a fortress called Fortress da Basso.  At the time, we thought this was the "fort" that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West got married at...now looking into it. Not the same fort. Whoops! It was a good thing they didn't get married here, because the fortress was not well kept.  We couldn't even enter, so we found a park nearby to enjoy instead.

 Outside of the fortress

 The park near the fortress

We headed to one of the most famous bridges in Florence afterwards, the Ponte Vecchino.  It is most famous because it still has functional shops built into (onto it?) it. What makes it even cooler is that all the shops are expensive jewelry stores.  It is amazing to see it from afar, as you would think the buildings would just fall into the river.  Also, walking through the bridge you don't realize you're going over water...just feels like another street.  We walked over this bridge to see the palace, Pitti Palace, which unfortunately closed about 10 minutes before we got there.  It was so massive, I could only take a picture of the entrance.  Now I have found out that the fortress where Kim and Kayne got married at was right behind this palace. THIS makes more sense now. Mystery solved. We actually saw this fortress, Forte di Belvedere,  from our view at the Piazzale Michelangelo the night before.  [End of tabloid rant]

 The famous bridge, Ponte Vecchino. No jewelry purchase this time. Florence was only meant for me to buy bags and scarves. 

We grabbed dinner on our walk back home, and headed to bed.  We had yet another early day of train rides to get to our next destination....

Onto our next adventure...