Florence: Day 1

Well today we started our journey to Florence. We hopped on the 8:50 am train and an hour and thirty minutes later we arrived. Hooray!!

  

Little Miss Navigator hard at work again. Wait, didn’t we already take this picture?

As we trudged (literally folks… I’m not exaggerating by using this word) towards our hotel, a Florence landmark quickly came into sight. We approached the Duomo and came face to face with the sign for our hotel. Seriously, we are this close?! As if the proximity wasn’t fabulous enough, the view from our window is unbelievable… seriously.

After we unpacked and cooled off a bit, we decided to take another city sightseeing tour. It was such a gorgeous day and we wanted to feel the wind in our hair!! (lol)

I must start off with this sign. As we drove by I thought “Ugh, I feel like that sign should be posted in the US” (or at least in my life). I feel like I’m always running. And I’m pretty sure that’s the generic pedestrian crossing sign, haha!

One of the first Florence hot spots was the building where Florentine currency was minted.

We then moved on to see various buildings and churches. I quickly began to notice how many window boxes were around Florence. I couldn’t resist capturing numerous shots.

  

  

Before we hit up the Duomo, we took a break from the bus to share some Lemon Gelato. It was so refreshing and tasted like one of those frozen lemonades you eat during the summer.

Next up was the Duomo. As I said before, it is literally right outside our hotel. The structure is magnificent; pictures do not do it justice. It is huge first of all. And all of the detail work is impeccable, as is everything in Italy thus far.

  

This guy was my favorite, it’s as if he’s saying, “What’s up God?”

Florence is SO different from Rome. It is so lush and green… absolutely gorgeous.

Our tour took us to Fiesole next. It is the quaintest little area with amazing views of Florence. Seriously… unreal (okay, I realize I’ve said this a million times already, but it really was).

We then saw the only original bridge in Florence that is still standing. It’s so cool. There were buildings on the bridge. It is where the goldsmiths would work.

Oh! I must mention one of our bus attendants. He was so friendly. He asked a couple at the front of the bus where they were from, and when their answer was “the States… Arizona” he responded by exclaiming, “Arizona Cardinals right?! I LOVE Jerry McGuire!!” LOL

After we finished our bus tour we went inside the Duomo. These Italians know how to decorate their churches. Crazy gorgeous. This one had stained glass, which I love, so that was pretty neat. And the ceiling... as you can see, gorgeous...

We walked around Florence after grabbing a "prosciutto and fontina cheese on focaccia" sandwich (you know what I’m going to say, right? YUM-O!!). Momma spotted her dream Vespa waiting outside one of the shops!

After we walked around a bit more we had worked up a dessert appetite and tried a waffle with Nutella and strawberries concoction. Okay, seriously?! It was SO yummy… definitely an Italian version of a s’more. Just go with it, LOL.

Well that was our first day in Florence!! Ciao! -E