{Florence, Italy}

At the end of March, Ryan and I went to Florence, Italy for a few days.  Ryan had a international research conference that he was attending and I got to tag along.  So thankful for my mother in law who came and wrangled my kiddos so I could be able to go with my hubby!!  Thanks Margaret!!  

We flew out of D.C. on Tuesday night on a red eye flight.  It was a long flight, with little sleep but I was going to Italy so I couldn't complain that much!!  Our layover was in Frankfurt and I got to catch up on some sleep during our 4 hour wait.  We got into Florence around 6pm.  By the time we landed, got our luggage, and hailed a taxi to our hotel we were starving!!  So we headed out to find some dinner.  We walked around the block and found a little place that looked decent and sat down for our first meal in Italy.  We ordered pizza.  We asked our waiter how big the pizzas were, so that Ryan and I could share if need be and he assured us that one pizza fed one person!!  So we ordered one pizza a piece.  Yeah, so I couldn't eat all mine!!  It was so, so good, I really wanted to try!!  Another lesson we learned was that you don't tip really anyone in Italy!  Only we found that out after we left our waiter a 4 euro tip!!  Probably made his night!!

We mad it back to our hotel and fell into a heap and slept like rocks.  The next morning we headed up to the rooftop restaurant for breakfast.  This was the amazing view that greeted us.  That dome in the background is the Duomo and you'll see later that we hiked to the top of it!  Amazing way to start the day!!

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Baglioni.  It was a lovely hotel, with lots of history and charm!!  My only complaint was the pillows could have used some extra fluff!!

We couldn't beat the view out of our window though.  There was a courtyard out our window and it was heaven laying on the bed, listening to the noise of the city and letting the sun shine on your face.  

This is where Ryan's conference was held.  It was just up the street from the hotel.  Which was convenient because we could meet for lunch and walk around the city and then Ryan would head back to the conference!

A neat little sculpture in the courtyard of the conference center!

There are very few normal sized cars that we saw in Florence.  All the cars are compact or even smaller.  Driving from the airport to the hotel our first night, I felt like we were in a James Bond movie.  Our taxi driver was amazing but it was a free for all out on the road.  If you could fit in a space, whether there was a lane there or not you just went for it.  Plus the streets, especially right in the city, are very small, so having a car the size of a golf cart is helpful!!

On one of our lunch dates we found a large open air market.  It was amazing, so many things to look at and so many vendors to fend off!!  This market took up the entire road for at least two blocks.  It was also located right next to a food market.  The food market was in large warehouse-like building.  It was filled to the brim with food stands of all kinds.  It was like a supermarket except that you bought specific things from certain vendors.  Like meat from the meat counter, fish from the fish counter, and so on!  It was a lot of fun to walk around and look at all the different foods and people.  I loved doing that!!

This was shot of the cathedral and the duomo that I took while eating lunch in the piazza one afternoon.  If you like people watching, this is a fantastic place.  I loved just watching the city move and all the people come and go.  The morning that we actually hiked the duomo we got there early so that we could get in line towards the front.  The city was just waking up and the piazza was empty.  We watched store owners open for business and sweep their front steps.  The street sweepers come through and cleaned up for the new day.  One of my favorite mornings just watching people and the city wake up!  

This is a pano that Ryan got of the front of the cathedral.  It was an amazing building.  With as ornate as it was on the outside you would assume it was just as decorated on the inside but actually it was the opposite.  It was quiet simple on the inside.  Other than the ceiling of the dome and some stained glass windows there wasn't much going on inside!

This is shot a nice woman took of Ryan and I once we made it up the 463 steps to the top of duomo.  The view was amazing and I am glad that I had been doing P90X3 for almost 6 weeks to make it up there without dying!  It really wasn't too bad but boy did my calves thank me the next day!!  I could have stayed up there forever just to look around the city!!  It was breathtaking!!

(our view on the hike down)

I watched a PBS special before I went on how the duomo was built.  The show was really interesting (yes I am a nerd and I watch PBS Nova Specials!) and even cooler to see the evidence of how they were able to build it on our walk down. 

Right next to the cathedral is the baptistry.  The outside was getting a face lift but we were able to go inside and take a peek!!  The ceiling was amazing.  I am in awe of the talent and artistic vision that these people had to do these amazing works of art.  Makes my stick figures look like, well stick figures!!

On the doors of the baptistry there are these relief scultures.  Again amazing!!  Yes, I was the nerd that took like 40 pictures from 3 different angles!!

We were able to see a reproduction of Michelangelo's David (below) in the Palazzo della Signoria.  The palazzo is in front of the old palace (Piazza di Vecchio) or what is basically city hall.  There are sculptures all around the palazzo.   

We had some amazing pasta one night.  Again I couldn't eat all mine but Ryan helped me out! :)  We also met up with some great friends that happened to be at the same conference.  It was fun to catch up with them!!

Gelato is seriously on every corner in Florence.  We indulged and very much enjoyed some Gelato after lunch and dinner!!  Heaven in a cone!!

We walked down to the Pointe Vecchio, or Old Bridge, on one of our walks.  This bridge isn't a normal, drive-your-car-over-it bridge.  It has shops on either side of it and it is for foot traffic only.  It had a great view of the Arno river while standing in the middle of it.  It was a neat place to spend some time.  

On our last night in Florence, colleagues of Ryan's planned a dinner out on the town.  It was in an amazing restaurant called Il Latini.  When we showed up there was already a large crowd waiting to get in.  The staff of the restaurant were eating dinner so the place didn't open until 7:30.  Which was when we had reservations.  I am sure that without those reservations we would have had to wait a fair amount of time before getting a table.  We got a table in the basement/wine cellar.  Which was just so cool!!  The food would have been worth the wait though.  It was so darn good.  We had a three course meal plus dessert.  I was waddling when we walked out the door 3 hours later.  It was a perfect way to end our trip.
Our flight left the next morning at 6:15, so this was our last hurrah in Florence.  Add in another Daylight Saving time change and we got very little sleep that night.  It was so worth it though!!

I am so glad Ryan and I got the chance to sneak away with each other for a few days.  Even more thankful that it was to Italy!!  I'd go back in a heartbeat!!