Florence Take 1

After a long nap on the bus up to Florence we are finally here. We are staying at the Hotel Mediterraneo - right by Ponte Niccolo. When we walked into our room we were taken back by how extremely small it was. It barely had room to stand with the two twin beds inside and one wardrobe. Not all the rooms were that tiny - some of them were larger. Although I must say, our room had a luxurious bathtub and a waterfall shower...worth the space contstraints? I'll have to get back to you after I "test" out a nice bubble bath - stay tuned! 


By the time we settled in it was just about 3:00 so we decided to take a quick walk up to the historic district to view the sites and see some of the shops in the area. We walked down the Fiume Arno and got to see the famous Ponte di Vecchio...it is so pretty at night. I tried to get a picture of the surrouding buildings reflecting on the water, but it didn't really come out. 


Some of the girls ended up buying beautiful hand-made leather gloves (only18 euro) and others got handbags (really cute). We also got the opportunity to see the Duomo - a breathtaking structure all on its own. The red, green and white (Italian flag) elaborate paintings, sculptures and marble crests make it pretty hard to miss. We really enjoyed walking around the piazzas and exploring.

After that was said and done - we decided to walk down to the suburban downtown for a bite to eat at a restaurant that was recommended to us by an Italian that sat in Rachel and Stephanie's car on the train. It ended up being kind of expensive, but we did get a pretty fancy meal out of it. Lauren and I split a brushetta sampler (eggplant brushetta, tomato brushetta and salami brushetta) along with insalta mixte and roast pork - which randomly came with french fries? Everything was delicious but because I have been eating so much heavy pasta lately I wasn't full from the meat dish...I needed to top my meal off with some sugar cookies to feel satisfied. Also, just for the record, cannoli's aren't always delicious in Italy... be careful where you get them and that the place looks authentic and not touristy. Last night I tried a cannoli that one of the girls purchased after dinner and I also had one in Rome that was similarly awful. It was as if the filling consisted of hard sugar icing with little Ricotta - so gross. Thank goodness I had that delicious one in Naples to prove that Italians know how to make them right!

This little guy wanted me to help him escape from the icy window display haha!

fishy window display walking into Downtown Florence