Florence Sights

    I plan on spending the next couple of weeks recapping the four cities that we visited as well as offer some travel advice for beginners traveling abroad.  We were Europe newbies sort of--I went to London with my high school orchestra back in the day.  It counts of course but the language barrier and fact that we weren't going to be followed around by a chaperone (ie. my mom) the whole time made this Europe trip feel a lot different.  It was exciting to be out on our own finding our way and only a little nerve racking at times.  

Our first stop was Florence, Italy.  Let me start by saying that when you round this corner and see the Duomo, it doesn't even look real.  It looks like a freaking movie set with an elaborately drawn backdrop. It's beautiful.

The Duomo itself was closed for mass, so we climbed the Campanile--this beautiful bell tower.  

It was 414 steps of crazy winding narrow stairways with way too many people, but it was worth it for the beautiful views!
 

The Ponte Vecchio is a historic bridge filled with shops on either side.  It's pretty amazing. 

It's safe to say that this place is beautiful and unlike any city we've ever been too.  It's truly a concrete jungle with very little grass, so if you get a chance to see the Boboli Gardens I highly recommend it.  You'll welcome some greenery!  The attention to detail there is also really cool.  They keep the garden up enough keep it beautiful and trimmed, but they leave it untouched enough for it to feel old and overgrown.  It's like this place is stuck in a time that has long-since passed.  

 

It rained pretty hard while we were at the gardens.  We practiced our selfie skills while waiting it out under some bushes.
 

  
Last but not least, we made sure to stop by Mercato Nuovo to see this famous statue of a wild boar nicknamed The Piglet.  Legend has it that if you rub his nose you will return to Florence one day.  

{Full disclosure: we came across the statue late at night after my birthday dinner and many birthday drinks.  I think that was the only way Kevin was willing to pose with a wild animal statue and rub its nose but I'm glad we snapped this pic}

We really do hope that we'll return one day. We feel like we still have so much in Italy that's left to see.  I'm pretty sure that I was meant to be there--the wine, the bread, the pasta, the oils, and the truffle dishes--ok so these are all food related items but I swear I loved the scenery too.  Here are a few more scenic shots.

And a few more fun ones.

I kept a journal during the trip of our favorite items and names of places so that we wouldn't forget anything.  Some of the things worth mentioning from Florence are below.
Where we stayed: Hotel Azzi
Top things to do: Climb the Duomo, Florence for Foodies Tour, shop the Mercado Centrale
Favorite random moment: We went to a nice wine restaurant for a meat and cheese appetizer on my birthday where we were shocked (and nearly spit out our wine laughing) to hear Gangsta's Paradise came over the speakers.  It's nice to get strange little reminders of home when you're abroad.  Even if it takes you back to middle school and awkward school dances.  For what it's worth, we hear that Gangsta's Paradise is a great movie; we might even watch it one day to remind us of our trip to Italy.  See how things come around full circle?

Florence Food

     Florence was the first stop during our week in Italy.  Unfortunately, some of our favorite meals of the trip will only live on in our memories, as we lost a portion of our pictures when we got home.  For example, our first night in Florence I had some life-changing truffle ravioli.  So life-changing that Kevin looked at me after my first bite and asked "Are you crying?"  Um, I wasn't quite shedding tears but it was that good y'all!  There are no pictures of it, but the legend of the delicious ravioli will live on forever.  Here's a sampling of some other goodies we saw and ate while in beautiful Florence.

 {Candy shop. We saved our candy buying for Paris though}

 

 {There are delicious sandwich and panini shops everywhere. Side note: this was the best fruit cup we've ever eaten}

 {Birthday gelato from Rivereno}

     {More birthday gelato. I had the Mayan and Aztec flavors. One was chocolate with chile pepper and the other was white chocolate with cinnamon. So amazing.}

    Probably our favorite part of the entire trip was the Florence for Foodies Tour that we took on our last day in Florence.  It was led by our guide, Natalie, who was fun and knowledgeable and taught us (and fed us!) so much.  We learned a lot about regional Italian cuisine (some of Florence's specialties are chianti, Brunello, picci pasta, truffle dishes, and prosciutto crudo).  I highly recommend this tour or one like it if you love food, like learning about food culture, and like to drink.  There was a ton of alcohol--I'm talking breakfast wine, white wine, prosecco, and grappa.  

Where we ate:
Zaza Trattoria- they have a truffle menu--a whole menu with only dishes featuring truffles, so this place is my restaurant soulmate
Gusta Pizza- seating is limited so order a pizza and bottle of wine to go!
Coquinarius- try the pear ravioli
La Strega Nocciola- our favorite gelato
Rivereno- more great gelato
Perche No!- famous gelato place; we sampled about 9 flavors on our tour and loved them all

Tomorrow I'll be sharing more about what we did and saw in Florence.

*Linking up with Taste of Tuesday with Ashley and Jessica