Firenze (Florence)

After a 2.5 hour train ride from Cinque Terre, we arrived in Florence mid afternoon.  We checked into our hotel, Katti House – a mom and pop hotel right in the heart of the city.  We had a steal of a deal for only $80 Euros a night.. the cheapest yet, and Charles and I lucked out to get an apartment since the other rooms were full.   One major drawback.. okay two – the bathroom was so tiny that the sink was actually in the shower and the second was that the AC didn’t work well at all..ok NOT at all.  We were so exhausted at this point and this was the end of good nights rest for me.  The apartment was very charming, but extremely uncomfortable.  We weren’t even in Florence for 24 hours so it didn’t really matter.

 

 

Charles working on AC unit

 

 

the kitchen to our apartment – so cute.  The ceilings were to die for.

 

The markets were also to die for.. SERIOUSLY amazing. loved loved loved it.

 

walking around Florence

 

window shopping.. their shoes (not necessarily these) were UH-MAZZZZING.  The leather quality etc.. oh my goshhhhhh nothing like you see here in the US and for very reasonable prices.  Fell in love with many pairs *again.. not these.. i just thought these gladiator shoes were funny.  A HUGE downfall of packing in a backpack is that you cannot under any circumstances buy things that take up even the smallest space.  My heart ached the entire time we were here.. shopping was NUTS – seriously.

 

 

we brought will back some of these tiny train letters.

 

 

 

the best pizza we had in all of the Italian towns – and this pic doesn’t do this pizza justice.. the meatballs were the size of golf balls… maybe bigger. they were ginormous and oh so delicious.. the peperoni wasn’t our thin greasy junk in the USA – this was thick and meaty and INSANELY good.

 

Florence also had the most beautifully decorated gelato too. also the most expensive gelato.  At this point, I was all gelato’ed out and feeling plump from all eating and drinking thus far – so I didn’t have any here.  Our friends paid 12 Euros.. aprox $15 for one cone.  They are huge and include a full breakfast sized waffle with caramelized sugar all over it stuck into the middle… ridiculous.

 

 

 

every european town seems to have one of these archways

 

florence had fleur de lis everywhere.. ;)

 

also tons of statues.. all naked.   This baffled me. Did everyone walk around naked? NO! so why didn’t they dress the statues??? so weird.

 

love the street lined restaurants with the bright fresh flowers

 

ok.. this was LOL funny. this random guy asked brian to take a picture of him. not just any pic… he requested that brian lay on the ground in the middle of this busy square to get the backdrop (in the picture after next)

the guy looked at the picture.. told brian he didn’t like it and asked him to get back on the ground to retake it!!!!!!!!!!!! ha hahaha

 

this is what he wanted in the background.. beautiful isn’t it?

 

naked statues everywhere..  left is a mini statue of david.. larger than life size though

 

It honestly made me a bit uncomfortable when everytime you turn around there is a stone penis in your face.   I’m just saying. 

this one was just gross. the head cut off of the body and guts exiting the head and neck. BARF.

ha.. artwork on the street.

 

such a beautiful place

I didn’t know I was about to take on more uphill activity.. UGHHHHHHHH

 

It was Megan and Brian’s 9 year anniversary.. they had special reservations planned after we hiked up to the top of the city.

 

I am so short and squatty compared to the rest of the crew.  My poor white pants never recovered.  I am still trying to get the stains out of the bottoms.. I did a temporary hem so that I could wear them with flat sandals.. when I got home, I un-hemmed them and black – all across where the then-hemmed line was. I love those pants.. not giving up hope just yet.. I spray them every day. It has almost been a month.

 

a lot steeper than it looks. serioulsy, I had to stop for rests.  I was so over uphill and stairs after Cinque Terre – I was less than thrilled about this.. but it was SO worth it for the views.

 

the old city wall.

 

FLORENCE

 

 

live music – they were really good!

 

stunning.

 

 

 

 

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more faux statues of davids.. we saw so many that we decided against seeing the real deal. I don’t regret it at all. I wish I could have seen more shopping time.. you’ll see why in a bit.

 

so beautiful

 

on our way down..

 

this looked straight out of a fairy tale.

 

still headed down.. waiting for megan.. she stopped a bunch for pics. :)

 

 

 

one of my favorite pictures.. check out the serene reflection and the canoe off to the left. perfect.

 

ok. these were the waffles I was telling you about earlier.  they smelled SO GOOD

food pics… almond pastries

softball sized meringues

 

typical lunch food – not very exciting.. we have many more options here in the USA.  Literally, your choices are paninis, pizza or paninis and pizza.. that is it. after several days of this.. we were over it.

 

GORGEOUS GELATO

 

isn’t this to DIE FOR?!

 

 

 

so charming

 

that pile of truffles was calling my name.

 

this shop also called my name. too bad our timing pretty much sucked .. we didn’t get to shop hardly at all since we got to florence in just enough time to hike up to see the view in daylight, walked back down to the city and the shops were closed.. Window shopping was amazing though and it is not like we could have bought anything anyway.. my heart ached.. i know i said it before.. but literally it did.

 

we stopped for food. a very mediocre meal – Megan and Brian had my Rick Steves’ book so I couldn’t look up a recommendation.. we were needing a culinary break at this point though.. we were SO TIRED and felt so FAT.  Neither of us had any wine with dinner and we ate, went back and crashed.

 

spaghetti cabonera (bacon and spaghetti with a sauce)  Charles was more adventurous with a Salmon pasta with red sauce.. they were both “okay” not the best we had eaten.  Megan and Brian’s meal was amazing and surprisingly inexpensive.

 

our cute room key

 

We got up early the next morning, packed up and hit the streets ready to shop. we only had until 11:00 since we had to catch taxi’s to get to the airport.

 

The leather was a bit darker in person. it smelled DELICIOUS.  I cannot describe how amazing their handbags, shoes, boots.. etc.. INCREDIBLE quality. but not cheap.

 

This bag I fell in love with.  I felt it would last me many years, the color wasn’t as reddish in person – the strap length was perfect, inside pockets were perfect.. {SIGH} I talked about this purse for the rest of the trip.  I talked him “down” to 160 Euros. = about a bazillion US dollars.  TOO MUCH for a purse. I still secretly wish I could have gotten it.  We didn’t even have that many Euros on us at that time. we were in a rush. there was just not. enough. time. sadness still overcomes me.  I wish you could feel that purse. oh my heart.

 

grrrr. the taxi I had to stop shopping to get to.

 

our plane ride to spain. we were all exhausted.