Oh Florence, I love you. I hate to pick a favorite city in Italy, but if I had to, I would probably pick Florence.
Today we slept in, and my lame bodyclock even let me push the limits by allowing me an extra half hour to sleep before waking up the first time. Oh thanks a lot bodyclock! You're so generous! But I did fall back to sleep pretty quick, and slept in, which was divine. The Westin has these things called "heavenly beds", they are heavenly, I will attest to that!
We ate breakfast on the same deck that we ate lunch yesterday and it was so peaceful and beautiful. We packed up and caught the water bus thing back to the train station. This time our ride wasn't as glorious. In fact it was pretty hellish. Picture waaaay to many people crammed on a smallish, hot, stinky boat and you have the general idea. It was horrible. We stood the whole time crammed up against other tourists and europeans and really I was dying. DYING. But it was over after a little bit and then we were done. Geez.
We caught our train to Florence pretty effortlessly and we were off. We had good seats again and this time sat by each other.
Train selfie!
The ride was quick and painless and before we knew it we were in Florence. Florence in one word is Amazeballs. We were so excited to be here! We grabbed a cab and took it to our hotel. Of course our room wasn't ready yet, so we left our bags with the front desk again and headed out to explore.
I took a few pictures of the beautiful lobby before we left.
We walked along the Arno river and just took it all in.
We are a little crazy about Florence. We love everything about it. The buildings are all these beautiful earth tones, and uniform. The hills in the distance are green and lush, the streets are clean and pretty. The culture is amazing. The food is to die for, and even the Italian that is spoke here is clean and precise. What's not to love?!
Arno Selfie!
The Ponte Vecchio...
Another view of it...
Ponte Vecchio selfie time!
We walked along the ponte vecchio and browsed all the pretty jewelry shops...
View looking out on the Ponte Vecchio...
We then decided to do what we do best in Italy...EAT. We stopped at a great little place on a back street and had really yummy antipasti and pasta. Yum. Florence is too good with the food.
We then continued to walk around and enjoy the sights. We did a little window shopping and real shopping and walked around the busy streets. We then found ourselves at the Duomo so we of course took a Duomo Selfie!
Our feet were getting tired, so we decided to head back to the hotel and rest up for a bit. When we got there we were happy to see that our luggage was gone and up in our room. We went up and I will have to say this room has been my favorite out of the three we have stayed in. I am in love. Is it possible to love a hotel room? I think it is...
Hallway to our room...
Entrance.
Bathroom.
Closet.
Sitting Room.
Bedroom, yep another heavenly bed! Nice!
Todd was exhausted and wanted to stay in the rest of the night, but I said NO WAY JOSE! We are young! We are in love! And by golly we will not go in for the night at 7:00! We are kid free! We need to live it up! I told him we only live once and we can sleep when we are dead! After my little speech he looked at me like I was crazy, and then he agreed to go back out for a half hour. I took it and we left!
Walking along the Arno now at night, and here is the Ponte Vecchio, night version.
We came to one of the main piazzas and there was this great musician playing some great songs. We stopped and listened to him for a while. It was so entertaining to watch this lady dancing around like a mad woman and pulling people in with her from the spectators. It was hilarious. She was just some random tourist. So funny.
We went right by the Duomo again and it sure is pretty at night all lit up!
We ended up at Piazza della Signoria and admired the Palazzo Vecchio at night...
This has got to be one of my favorite places ever. Right up there with the Trevi fountain in Rome. We wandered around listening to the street performers, and watching/avoiding the random guys who were trying to sell the most dollar store stuff for like 10 euro, it was great. No but seriously, they need to crack down on these guys. They seriously get up in your face and it is annoying!
We ate at a little place right in the square, breaking our number one rule, but the pizza was actually good and the atmosphere was incredible. During dinner I was making pretend toasts with Todd and trying to drive him crazy like a good wife should. We looked at the time and it had already been almost 2 hours since we left. So much for a short walk outside for a half hour! I kept making toasts to YOLO-ing because I like to pretend I am cool and then Todd made some fake toasts, and we are ridiculous. But the whole point is I want to remember that dinner and those stupid toasts and the whole night because it was such a great time. Plus, you only live once.
And here are the resident naked men statues of piazza della signoria...
This isn't the real David, he's tucked away, this is just the mini version.
We walked back to our hotel and now I am sitting with the curtains open looking at the most amazing view of Florence all lit up tonight. It is gorgeous. Full day tomorrow to explore! Can't wait!
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