Ultimate Europe Trip 2016 Day 21: When In Florence
Today marks our last full day in Florence. My how the time just continues to fly by. I cannot believe that in a couple of days we will be flying home. But enough with the sad thoughts, we have a great day in Florence to talk about. The day started beautifully with us both waking up a little after 8AM to get ready for the day.
We made our way down to breakfast both feeling a little bit fatigued from the wine tour the day before. We had the hotels breakfast. Jenn stuck with eggs, bacon, and toast while I had more deli meats with toast and yogurt. It was a nice easy breakfast. We went back to our room and both laid down and closed our eyes for an hour. We finally made it out of our hotel a little before noon and found a nearby restaurant for lunch.
Did I mention doing our research paid off dividends? Every place we’ve been we’ve done research and found great places to eat, Florence is no different. Our lunch stop thanks to Jenn was phenomenal. Jenn had the spaghetti carbonara which was leagues better then the one I had two days ago. I went with a sausage and tomato pizza which was easily the best pizza I’ve had the entire trip. It was a really great Italian meal.
From lunch we stopped at a nearby gelato shop so Jenn could order the most boring gelato possible, vanilla. She got herself a nice big scoop of gelato in a cone and walked around it as we made our way to the Galleria dell'Accademia where the famous David statue is.
We had heard that the lines there can be atrocious and today was no different. From the look of the line it was looking like it was going to be an hour or two to get in. We decided against standing outside in nearly hundred-degree weather to see the statue. Instead we walked by the building, made a u-turn and went back out.
We kept walking the beautiful streets of Florence taking shade anywhere we could and continued walking towards the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. Before we could get there though I had one small trick up my sleeve. The last two times we’ve been to Venice there’s a clothes store called Sisley that Jenn and I both have fallen in love with. Each time we make it a point to go there. When I found out there was one in Florence I marked it as a place to stop at if we had a chance. Luckily on our walk to the bridge we passed right by it and we stopped in. Jenn got a top and I got a shirt. It’s still a style that we both love and am glad we got to stop there.
After we dropped some money to keep Sisley in business until our next trip to Italy we continued on to the gorgeous bridge. We snapped some photos, walked into a couple of the shops on the bridge and decided to make the short walk back to our hotel.
We got back to our hotel and started packing up our suitcases for our trip to Nice tomorrow. Jenn took a nap and I surfed through photos and began looking for our dinner options. I made a selection and a little before 7PM we went back out in search of one last great Italian meal. We walked to my recommendation and it only took us a few seconds to realize it wasn’t what we were looking for. The restaurant I picked made Cheesecake Factory look like they had a small menu.
Instead we walked back towards our hotel and found a much more concise menu at another highly reviewed restaurant. There we both got a glass of their house red wine. Jenn went with the spaghetti in duck sauce and I had a beef and risotto dish. Both meals were simply stunning. The best way I can describe both is that there was almost nothing on our plates when we got done with dinner. We left the restaurant a little after 8PM and went in search for gelato for me.
After walking the wrong direction for almost ten minutes we turned around and found some gelato right next to the restaurant we ate at. I had a combination of mint chocolate and latte gelato. It was amazing.
We walked back to our hotel, watched some of our second to last episode of the OJ Simpson TV show and passed out. It was another very nice and relaxing day in Florence. Although we didn’t do nearly as much as we have in other stops on the trip, it’s exactly what we needed from this point in the trip. We’re starting to wear down, and as such we are looking at Florence and our remaining three nights in Nice as a chance to relax, unwind, and enjoy the remaining few days on the Ultimate Europe Trip.
