Italia: Florence

    It's day five. This puts us about halfway through our trip. It doesn't upset us, though. In 5 days, we have seen and done so much. We know that there is much more to come. For day 5, we chose Florence. What could be a better start to a day than a trip to AutoGrill? Oh, AutoGrill... How I've missed you. We went to one, but it wasn't a really big one. Before this trip is over, were going to a huge one.

    Wanting to be able to explore Florence and the surrounding area both today and tomorrow, we decided that a one-night stay nearby would be a good idea. We booked a room at a "hotel" outside of the main city, about a 15 min bus ride. When we got to the hotel, we met some friends and got acquainted with our room.

    The woman to check us in wasn't there when we arrived. In fact, we couldn't find anyone when we arrived. After yelling out, "Hello!" a few times, a woman eventually came out to help us. She was able to get in touch with the woman we need to see. That woman showed up about 20-30 min later. After some time, we were checked in and heading for Florence. A late start, but that's okay. The only issue was lunch. We were starving!

    At this time of day, most restaurants are closed, and the ones we found, at first, were right by the river and wanted more than 20 Euro per plate. So we kept looking until we found a small sandwich shop. It was good enough to get us happy again.

    We first went by the river. We wanted to see Ponte Vecchio, the first and oldest bridge in Florence to cross the river; the only one that was not destroyed completely by the Germans in WWII. Like most of Florence, this bridge is covered with high-end shops filled with things that we can't afford, haha. We had a nice view of both sides of Florence.

    As we walked, we came across the most impressive building to me yet. In the Piazza del Duomo sits the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, a duomo so big, that there is no camera that can capture how immense it is. Truly incredible to see. The dome of this building was the largest of it's time. It was an architectural marvel. Today, the dome is beaten in size only by the one in St Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican City. We walked around the building, being impressed by every view.

    We also saw this street sweeper thing. Almost as impressive.

    We went to the Piazza di Santa Croce. In it is the basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze. In this church, you can see the tomb of Michelangelo.

    Florence was a cool city. We tried to explore as much as we could. It was also crowded, which made getting anywhere difficult. The other issue was our available time. Getting a late start, we had to use our time wisely.

    One highlight of Florence was our stop for gelato. We went to Gelateria dei Neri. So creamy, so much flavor. I got the Crema, Meg got the salted caramel and dark chocolate. I want to go back. I also got a double espresso, which was delicious.

    We ended the night with another walk by the river. We wanted to see it at night. It was a great ending. Tomorrow, we go back to see more of Florence. After that, we're gonna do something special...