Italy: Florence Part 1

If you're just joining us, I'm recaping my trip to Italy with my husband. You can check out my recap of our time in Rome here (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

Florence

After 3 days in Rome, we took the train to Florence. Since we booked the entire trip a la carte and all ourselves, getting from place to place was a bit stressful, especially when you don't speak or read the native language... We took a taxi to the train station, but since we couldn't call a cab, we had to find a taxi station first. We planned ahead and scoped out the taxi station the day before, but it was still a decent walk from our apartment. Fun times dragging our luggage down the cobblestone streets. Thank goodness we did carry-on only!

Once on the train, we were able to enjoy the sights!

We rented an apartment in central Florence. It was nice and open, but it didn't hold any heat. 

The gentleman who owns the flat is also an artist. Just one of his many paintings in the apartment.

The Uffizi

We stopped at the famous Uffizi museum. Again, we listened to Rick Steve's audio guide. Photos aren't allowed inside the galleries, but I was able to snap one of the hallway inside the museum.

The David

This is just a replica of Michelangelo's David. We saw the real deal the next day inside a museum.

Ponte Vecchio

The Ponte Vecchio bridge is famous for its many gold and jewelry shops. It spans the Arno river.

View from the bridge. In the summer months, this view is much more cheery. Can you tell it rained a lot?

With the gold shops on the bridge. No... we didn't buy anything. :/

 A shop with lots of yummy goodies!

We ended the day by having dinner at a traditional trattoria. The waitress didn't speak any english, but luckily they had an english version of the menu. We had to count off the items on the menu to see what it translated to in Italian.

Wine is always an easy one to order. Most places don't sell wine by the glass- only by the bottle!

Primo (i.e. first course) of wild boar ragu pasta

... and some kind of pesto lasagna.

Second/main course of meatballs and mashed potatoes and beans and bangers (pretty sure that's an English dish, but it was still good!)

Honestly, I don't know how the Italians manage to eat so much and stay so skinny! Every meal had a first course (pasta), a main course (meat), and of course wine. We were so stuffed by the end of the meal!