Days Five, Six and Seven: Florence

Well, I always love when I can say that I saved the best for last, and in this case, I did. Florence was BY FAR my favorite city in Italy. It was just amazing. We took the train in, which took about an hour, and then took a cab to our hotel, which wasn't exactly downtown, but that turned out to be okay. The owner didn't speak ANY English, so between hand motions and speaking Spanish to him, we were able to communicate. :) The rooms were beautiful. Some even had frescoed paintings on the ceiling (unfortunately, not ours). It was called La Terraza, because there was a large terrace on the back, which was the perfect place for evening wine drinking. :)

Anyways... Florence. The first thing that strikes you when you look at the city is the color. In Rome and Naples, there were lots of reds, blues, and whites. In Florence, which is in Tuscany, the colors are very "Tuscan"... meaning, yellows, oranges, and browns. It's really striking. There were lots of big and little town squares to watch people and enjoy the sites, which we took full advantage of. I think after seeing a lot of sights in all the other cities, we were just ready to take some time to relax. We did a few "touristy" things, but spent the rest of the time just walking around, shopping, and, of course, eating. :) We also drank a fair amount of wine. My favorite thing about Florence? There was a wine shop on the way back to our hotel from downtown, that seriously has wine on tap. You just pick what you want, they fill up the bottle, then put the cork in, and it is yours - for 2.50 euros! Sean and I did that both nights we were in Florence, and just enjoyed chatting on the terrace (while, unfortunately, the mosquitoes attacked us!). We didn't get up early either day, and just really enjoyed each other and this beautiful city. What a great way to end the trip!


KP on the famous "Ponte Vecchio"... a bridge where all kinds of things are sold


The Ponte Vecchio from the Uffizi Gallery... okay, I had to see SOMETHING... this art gallery has a lot of really famous paintings... which I really try to appreciate. We spent a few hours there, and then decided NO MORE ART MUSEUMS!


The view of the Duomo as we climbed to the top of the building next door. This church was amazing (more so on the outside), and was so DIFFERENT than most of the other churches I've seen, mostly because of the marble decoration on the outside. Very cool... and always a highlight of my trips to get to climb way up high to get to see the whole city.


Views of Florence from the top... note the "Tuscan" colors...




The other famous musuem in Florence is the Accademia, which has the famous statue "David" by Michaelangelo inside... unfortunately, the day we had tickets to the gallery, the workers were on strike. Bummer...

Our last night in Florence... neither one of us really wanted to leave. :(

So, we had to fly out of FCO airport on Saturday evening... unfortunately, with our little change in plans, we were on different flights back to Amsterdam. Sean got in 3 hours earlier, because for some reason, I had booked a flight through Paris (what the hell was I thinking??). Anyways, he was able to find my car (I don't have a parking spot, so I just park on the street whereever I can) and picked me up at the airport. We spent Sunday just sleeping in, and then walking around the city. It was nice to have a "normal" day together. It's kind of weird to only get to see each other in these amazing citites. Don't get me wrong... it's great. But it's just not everyday life. Probably my favorite part of our trip together was just making dinner together on Sunday night... So, long story short, things are going well, a lot of good conversations were had, and we're working through it.