If you get the chance while you’re abroad, you should make time to see Florence. While in Florence, it’s relatively easy to make your way to Cinque Terra, where you can take a train, or hike (which I would suggest), from town to town along the coast and it’s amazing.
Florence is really an awesome city. However, our arrival was not so smooth. We took the train from Rome to Florence’s station that was not Novella. That was our first mistake. If you ever take a train to Florence, I suggest the Novella station..it just seemed closer than the one that we took. It’s really close to a big, incredible market that you can get all kinds of different foods and oils and wines. Again, I go on about the markets. But really, it’s great. Anyway..instead of taking a taxi from the train station, we decided we would find our way there and then get on a bus that the woman at the hotel told us about…when she thought we were at the Novella station. So we spent the next two hours dragging our luggage around the streets of Florence trying to make our way to that train station. When we got to the hotel and she found out that we walked from one station to the Novella station, she was somewhat shocked. However, we prevailed. The first day in Florence was somewhat slow. But we did go to a restaurant called Sizzle and got quesadillas and nachos, fried chicken and onion rings. And who could forget the strawberry margaritas? It was AMAZING. The first day was filled with unexpected events. A medieval parade, a band playing at an outside bar, a police search with drug dogs. All this in one day!
The second day was more planned out. We had a nice morning going to the Galleria Academia and seeing the David. Yes, I snuck pictures of the David. Then we climbed to the top of the Duomo and got an incredible view of the city. It was somewhat exhausting just realizing how far we had walked the previous day. It was A LOTTTT. On the wall that I was standing next to I noticed the Deathly Hallows sign and underneath it said HP Forever..I fell even more in love with Florence. Then I looked slightly to the left and saw Gabrielle June 2012. So I was signed right next to Harry Potter.
After we climbed the Duomo, we got some food at a place called Mario’s. It was a bit of a wait, but completely worth it. The place was packed, the food was cheap, and it was all good. They don’t have a set menu, it seemed as if it changed every day, but I got spinach ravioli and the other people we were with got a meat sauce pasta and some tomato soup. All of the food was good. When they went back to our hotel, which was really great and helpful, my boyfriend and I decided to make our way over to Piazza Michelangelo. It was a hike. And it was hot. I’m pretty sure by the time we got back I was completely delirious. We went out though and found a restaurant that Ernest Hemingway ate in the 1920s and there was a picture of him on the menu. They sucked us in when they said we could each have a free glass of champagne. After dinner we walked around for a bit and saw some stuff. Lots of stuff. Lots of it.
For convenience and space, I just put these images in a gallery. Click on a photo and it will bring it into a slide show! Do it dooooods!
