We took the train from Cinque Terre to Florence. Easy ride -- we transferred about 15 minutes in, at the La Spezia train station and it was direct from there!
Following the directions to walk from the train station to our airbnb apartment, it was a nice 10-minute walk. Arriving, we found that we had booked, basically, the best apartment ever! It was lovely inside but the view and location were truly amazing. The apartment (
here on airbnb) is next to the duomo (cathedral) in the center of the city and the place's terrace has an amazing view of the dome!
Seriously. This was our view from the apartment's terrace... and not zoomed in!
One more time... now a nighttime view:
I very much enjoyed our time in Florence. We went on a full day-trip the day after arriving and that was great. I'll post about that next.
The tour was through Walkabout and it was great. I'm usually not a big fan of tours but I liked that this one was set up with structured time AND free time. Everything was really nicely done and the day was well-balanced. It was recommended to me by a friend here and I can see why. (Walkabout also does a tour to Cinque Terre from Florence!)
Back to Florence, though... we shopped in the market, enjoyed a great dinner at the same restaurant that my mom and I went to about 7 years ago with my dad and brothers, and enjoyed walking through the city. We really only had about half a day to enjoy the city since we chose to do the Tuscany tour on our full day.
The place we had dinner at is
Trattoria dal Giorgio. It's a fixed price (I think about 13 or 14 euro each) and you are able to choose a drink, first course, second course, side, and dessert. We love the price and we love the food!
On our walk, we went along the river to the Ponte Vecchio
(ponte vecchio translates to old bridge)
In the Piazza della Signoria, is the Palazzo Vecchio
Florence's duomo from the front (the same building that we can see the side and main dome from the apartment we stayed at!)
al fresco painting on the outside of a building
Social time on the steps of the duomo
During my undergrad, I studied Italian for about a month in Florence. It was my first time abroad and my first time to Italy. A dream come true! I remember the moment that I first saw the duomo. My friend and I had gone for a walk at dusk and thought we were lost. We were attempting to find our way to school so that we would know how to get there the next morning for the first day of classes. We turned a corner... then turned around... and all of a sudden the duomo was towering (literally!) over us. In the darkening sky, it looked like cardboard and I thought it was fake. To this day, that is still one of the most surreal moments of my life. It took a few moments for me to realize it was real, it was a gigantic church, AND that we had found our school! (Our Italian language school was three doors down from the duomo. Incredible.)
