Day Five: Florence

We woke up early next day.  We took our time getting ready, but we also decided that we would do things differently.  We wanted to bring a change of clothes so we could go out and enjoy the evening and not have to come back to the house to change.  Getting our things together took time.  For breakfast I had bruschetta and cheese.  I could eat this all day...

The lovely couple suggested we go to a town nearby called Monteriggioni.  They have a castle there and it’s surrounded in the infamous Tuscany landscape.  I fell in love with the cypress evergreen trees.  We even found lavender bushes, as well as basil growing around the castle.  

Basil amd lavender...

My knight in shining armor?

Where is everybody??

It was barely 11am, and not many people were in town.  It made it easier for us to look around.  We were getting the itch for our next cup of espresso.  We decided to go to Siena instead for our fix.
Since it now was the afternoon it was starting to get busy.  We found a café called Nannini and sat down for a while.  When we decided to walk around the plaza.  We were enjoying the town and later on we grew hungry.  Now that siesta was calming down, it was perfect for us to grab a bite.  I wasn’t in the mood for a full meal, so I settled on a glass of red with some focaccia bread.  My friend ate buffet style.  Off we went to our new destination!

Siena early afternoon...

Quick bite in this cafe...

We drove to Florence and I immediately noticed how populated it is.  There are a ton of people walking around.  I believe it is a busier city than Rome.  We found parking and walked to the main plaza.  There were so many shops and people it was getting a little overwhelming.  We were walking through so many streets we practically walked into the Duomo chiesa!  It blew my mind away!  The detailing of this church is beautiful.  I wanted to go inside but my friend started to get anxious with all of the people around.  Luckily inside we felt better and took our time admiring the cielo of this church.  We saw a huge line charging people to go upstairs, but because my friend felt claustrophobic we decided to skip that too.  Apparently the view up there is amazing.

DUOMO!

Bella chiesa...

We continued to walk around the area and decided to go towards the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge aka the Gold Bridge.  There my friend explained how people from all over the world buy their jewelry from the shops. What beautiful pieces!  I wish I had brought more loot with me.  Lol.

We were growing tired again by all the walking.  She suggested we go find a nice bar with a view of the bridge and the Arno River.  We settled on Signorvino wine bar.  They seated us at the balcony and me and my friend couldn’t stop taking pictures.  We started having a conversation with an English woman who was seated next to us.  I think she was enjoying our conversation so we decided to include her in it.  She was staying at a hotel by the bridge and was enjoying her time there.

Light bites again.  The view was amazing!

At one point we received a phone call by the lovely couple we were staying with.  We had just ordered some apretivo and they were inviting us to dinner again.  I didn’t think my friend had agreed to dinner again, but I warned her I might not eat very much since I just ordered some food.  My appetite doesn’t work like most people.  If I’m not hungry, I’ll play with my food.  She understood and was going to tell a white lie for me by saying I had a tummy ache.  I didn't want to get their feelings hurt in case I wouldn’t eat as much.

We drove back home afterwards and had a light dinner with the couple.  They were cute because they knew we wanted to go out so they told us we were free to go.  Lol.  We quickly showered and got ready.  A friend of theirs suggested some spots for us to go out to.  Off we went back to Florence again. 

I noticed right away that the streets were pretty empty.  My friend thought about it for a second and realized that northern Italy does things differently than southern Italy.  She was worried some places close early.  We found parking but got lost trying to find this one wine bar.  This took over 30-40 minutes, at one point even jumping into a cab because my friend’s feet hurt from all the walking we were doing.   When we reached our destination on the GPS we still couldn’t find it.  My friend realized after the fact that the wine bar had closed at 9pm.  So much for that.

We walked into here to get directions.  We figured we would come back if we couldn't find the other spot.

Our back up plan was Sesio at the Westin Hotel.  We took another cab there and had a better feeling about that place because it was in a fancy hotel.  We made our way up to the rooftop and there was a relatively small group up there, but as the night went on, more people showed up.  We ordered a bottled of wine and as usual, it came with complimentary cookies, nuts and chocolates.  That was a nice surprise.  My friend noticed there weren’t any Italians up there; mostly tourists, which was fine by me because the view was amazing.  We stayed and talked the rest of the evening and off we went.  We did a lot that day!

At the rooftop at the Westin Hotel.

Cin cin

The lobby was breathtaking...

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