Will you be my Firenze?

Florence, Italy started out with a rough start as we booked a room right next to the river.  What this means is that there were somehow mosquitos in our room, so Aaron didn't sleep at all the first night but he did however have 28 mosquito bites by the morning.  Needless to say, we checked out early the next morning and moved places.  Our next place was quite nice, not by the river, and it was near everything.  Florence was so beautiful.  The history there is amazing and the buildings, churches, etc are so over the top it's crazy to think how long ago they were actually built.  Italy also gives Thailand a run for the best food in a country.  Pizza, pasta, gelato, and great wine is a tough combo to beat.  It surprises me everyone here isn't completely obese, but then you realize that they walk places and they don't eat overly processed foods for every meal.  


This is the Duomo.  It's huge.  You can pretty much see it from everywhere in the city.  There is a hike up to the top of the dome, but with our exceptional planning we saved it for our last day and of course it was closed!  Oh well, next time.  And let's be real, hiking up hundreds of stairs in a building without A/C doesn't sound that fabulous.

Here is the replica statue of Michaelangelo's David.  Someday I will look like this, minus the foreskin.  This was good enough for us to see as we didn't want to wait in line to see the real thing.  Some would say we're not good tourists, I disagree.  Going into museums is a nightmare and I usually have zero interest in what is in most of them.

This sandwich shop below (All'Antico Vinaio) produced the best sandwich I've ever had.  Everything is so fresh and there are many different spreads/vegetables.  Also, €2 self-service vino is pretty great while you're waiting.  Great job by ATG is finding this little gem.

Enjoying our sandwiches from All'Antico Vinaio with a view of Vecchio Bridge.  Take away food + finding a place with a view to eat it is much better than sitting in a tourist trap restaurant. 

This is the sunset while sitting on Vecchio Bridge.

More Vecchio Bridge, it is beautiful.

Below is Piazza del Duomo in the evening.  This square amazed me.  It's hard to tell just how big these buildings are. 

Churches are great to go in during the day because they are so pretty, but they're more appealing at night to sit on the steps and drink your wine.  I'm sure when they built these hundreds of years ago, they pictured people chugging down wine and cheap booze on their steps.  

I don't remember what church this was in but let's just say it was in the Duomo.

ATG posing.  

I loved how Italians are so proud of being Italian.  I'd say it's equivalent to how Aaron is with the US.  You see the green/white/red everywhere you go and I think this photo captured it perfectly.  

I'm 85% sure this is the Basilica of St. Lawrence.  As you can tell, we go to see the sites, not to learn the history.

The view from Piazza Michelangelo was amazing.  Here you can see the wall that I assume used to be around the whole city.  

I told you the Duomo was huge, look at that thing!  The city having the same colored rooftops made it so beautiful.  You can also see Vecchio Bridge.  We wanted to come up here for sunset but they were having the Italian MTV awards up here so unfortunately we could only go during the day. 

All over Italy they had Apertivo Buffets.  This is where you go in buy a drink for €5-9 and then it comes with a buffet of great food.  The buffet usually has a lot of apps, salads, pizza, pasta, etc.  We really loved the one at Kitsch which was right down the street from our apartment.

Vecchio Bridge at night

It's always interesting asking people to take a photo for you.  I would say 9 out of 10 times the photo is so zoomed in on you, you can't see what you're in front of.  Here is a perfect example:

Same view, but this person did much better.