Day 5: Firenze on Foot

Today was another action- packed day in Florence! We started the day by meeting Gabriel, our private tour guide for a walking tour of Florence. He mostly focused on the history of the  Medeci family. He showed us many different churches and squares, as well as important palaces like the palazzo de vecchio and the palazzo pitti. He gave us a lot of great facts that helped put the city into perspective. After about 3 hours, we left Gabriel and went for some pizza to relax and get off our feet. The one thing about Italy is they do not rush you at restaurants and you can relax and eat for as long as you like.

We decided after lunch to journey over to the palazzo pitti to see the Giardino di Boboli (Boboli Gardens). They were magnificent and provided many beautiful views overlooking Florence. Though it was very hot and we were all extremely sweaty, we all enjoyed it.

Once we felt we looked around enough, we journeyed back into the center of town in search of something cold to drink. We walked back across the Ponte Vecchio, which is the oldest bridge in Florence, due to the fact that the Nazis destroyed all of the other ones to delay American progress into Italy in 1944. People used to live in small houses on this bridge, but those houses have since been renovated into jewelry stores. Only jewelry is allowed to be sold on the bridge. We walked into a Pinocchio store along the way and learned that the author of Pinocchio is actually a Florentine! We eventually got back to the same street as our hotel and found a cafe that sold iced chocolate! It was delicious and helped cool us off.

At this point, Dad needed a little rest, but not the rest of us! I convinced Mom and Allie to climb the bell tower of Santa Maria del Fiore (in piazza de Duomo) with me! We made it up all 414 steps to take in the breathtaking view of Firenze. We took lots of pictures and congratulated ourselves on making it up! Even mom surprised herself! The journey down was much easier.

After taking some time to rest and cool down, we went back out for dinner to a place not so far from our hotel that we had found earlier. We got two kinds of pasta: ravioli and tagliatelle. We also tried a steak and chicken. Everything was delicious! Of course, in keeping with mom's goal, we also had some montepulciano (red wine). When we finished, we went to a gelateria that was recommended by our tour guide this morning. It was called Grom, and was about one block from our hotel. He told us that this was the real Italian gelato, vs. some of the other places that are tourist traps. We enjoyed it while taking in the view of the Duomo at night.

We came back to the hotel a bit earlier today due to the fact that we have an earlier tour in the morning! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings:)