FIRENZE

Our Florence Photo Diary ♥

Hi guys!
First of all, I cannot believe it has been 2 months since Italy!
Ever since we got back, we have been sooooo busy!!!!  

I seriously have not had any free time to just sit and blog/post photos of our trip.
I finally have a little room to breath - so I will be posting photos and blog posts of our Italy trip pretty soon!

Obviously from the title – this post is the 2nd part of our trip w/c is FLORENCE!
I don’t know even know where to start…
Florence is undeniably a beautiful beautiful city! If you love history, especially arts, Florence is definitely the place for you!
Ryan and I are not into history or arts at all but we still fell in love w/ Florence!

1st day
The first day we were in Florence it rained on and off… Luckily our BnB was literally 2 blocks away from the Duomo and city centre (can we even handle the location). The BnB we stayed at was FABULOUS! “Stanze Del David”- def check it out! The hosts were literally the best and very accommodating! The BnB was very elegant, rooms were fantastic and you really could not beat our location! It was walking distance to mostly everything 

(Check out photos and reviews of Stanze Del David HERE)

Even though it rained the first day, it did not stop the crowds from going out onto the beautiful streets of Florence - we were, ofcourse, part of them. Ha. Seriously, not in Florence for even an hour and I was already in love with the city! So beautiful!

We first checked out the Florence Cathedral and Duomo since it was right by our BnB and “ohh my god” like OMG! It was amazing!!!  It was incredibly massive and every detail was breath taking! I wished we went inside and went to the top of the Duomo… If you know me in person you know I hate lines MORE THAN ANYTHING! I just cannot do it. So even though it was free to get in, we ended up skipping going inside. Looking back at it now... I should’ve just sucked it up!

Hey! Another reason to go back right?

After walking around we had a small meal literally right next to the Duomo and enjoyed its beauty. We decided we'd check out all the other attractions the next 2 days when the weather was much better, so for the rest of our first day we just visited some stores (leather shops – when in Florence!) and ate (a lot!)  We probably had our best dinner of the whole trip our first night in Florence in this little restaurant - we had Rabbit, Boar, amazing wine, and there was even a little Italian band playing on the street!  It was the perfect ending to a perfect day!

It was a fabulous first day in Florence!

2nd day
We started our day early and visited some of the most famous attractions!
Here are some of the attractions we visited that day:

• Ponte Vecchio
• The historic bridge w/ shops built into it and supposedly one of the oldest bridge in the country. Its crazy how a bridge that old is still standing there! Especially with all that busy crowds visiting it every day! Bananas! Also, over at the Ponte Vecchio you get to see picturesque colorful houses by the river! Beautiful!

• The Uffizi Gallery
• Ryan and I aren't really into arts, so we didn’t really make it a priority to go inside the Uffizi Gallery and see all the famous artwork (I know, shame on us!). So we just passed by it and made our way to Piazza della Signoria

• Piazza della Signoria
• The crowded square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. In the square there is an open gallery of statues by famous artists and a statue copy of Michelangelo's David. You can also find shops and restaurants everywhere near by the square. Great place to get coffee, sit outside and people watch.

• Basilica of Santa Maria Novella
• Another beautiful church in Florence! We had lunch nearby at this in this crazy open air market with anything you could possibly want.  Whole roasted pigs, truffled everything, cheese, wine, YUM

• Passed by the Basilica di San Lorenzo

• Mercato Centrale
• A super cool indoor food market with traditional food stands on the ground floor and a contemporary and delicious (gourmet style) food court with all the food and wine you could possibly ask for on the top floor!

• Piazzale Michelangelo
• This was the highlight of my day! It was just fabulous! The location, the view = AMAZING!
• Check out my blogpost of Piazzale Michelangelo HERE

I love love love Florence. It truly is just a beautiful beautiful city!
My favorite part was just walking through the beautiful streets -
passing by the shops, the cafes, the stunning architecture, seeing all the famous attractions I had been reading about for so long and finally witnessing Firenze in real life!

I seriously am dying to go back already!!! And maybe go to the museums and see more of the arts this time!

3rd Day
We were out early to beat the crowd and captured the beauty of the Florence Cathedral and Duomo.
Surprisingly 7am in Florence means the city is still sleeping – there were no cars, mostly all the places were still closed and there were very few people around.

I highly suggest that when visiting Florence, or any other major tourist destination for that matter, do what we did and be out and about that early!  I know!  You’re on vacation!
But being out that early with nobody around you… you really get to roam around the streets freely and really appreciate its beauty.

We were going to go to The Accademia Museum this day and go see Michelangelo’s David
but we decided to hop on the train and visited 'The Leaning Tower of Pisa' instead.
(Check out my blog post about Pisa HERE)

Overall, being in Florence for 3 days was incredible!
The city was just amazing - it was filled with history, culture, great food, picturesque streets,
shopping and there was just so much art all over the city! It was just amazing!
And lets not forget our fabulous BnB 'Stanze del David'.

We missed a few things from out itinerary because of the 1st day rain
Palazzo Pitti, Boboli Gardens, Michelangelo's David at the Accademia Gallery and Santa Croce -
But its OK because I know I will def be back to beautiful FIRENZE (soon, I hope!)