Florence

Our next destination was Florence. This was our last stop in Italy and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had heard so much about Venice and Rome, but Florence did not disappoint. Our first view of Florence is what set our expectations high. We stopped at the lookout Piazzale Michelangelo. The overview of the city was breath taking. I think Mom fell in love right then and there with Florence. We topped off the beautiful lookout with some fabulous gelato.
We went down into the city and had the afternoon to ourselves. We wandered the streets, made sure to find some booths to buy stuff, and soak in the Italian culture.
We made our way over to the Ponte Vecchio. It was beautiful. The weather combined with the views created yet another "movie moment" for me and Mom. We didn't do much shopping there, but got our leather wallets (and a bag for Mom) at a market we found not far down the street. Who can go to Florence and not buy something leather? I'm sure it was real based on the price we paid too.
To take a break and let our feet rest, we picked a cute little cafe in one of the main squares to have some pizza. Pizza (to be more specific Margaretta Pizza) and gelato basically became my diet on the trip, especially in Italy. But this little cafe was so cute, right in the square with fabulous patio seating.
We met up with our group for a walking tour (once again with our "Mark of the Beast" whisper systems). For parts we were bored out of our mind, but it was still interested to see the famous Duomo. It was huge and beautiful. Did I mention that we saw about a million and one churches? I think I was on Catholic Cathedral overload.
We had dinner with the group that night. Lets just say, I was pretty happy we had eaten a decent meal about an hour earlier. I don't know what they served us, but I could barely get a bite down. So, I snuck out near the end, headed down the street two doors and got a gelato. It's probably a good thing I don't live in a place with ice cream so readily available. There was literally a gelateria every two doors. I was in heaven!

We made it back to our room and were exhausted. Mostly because we were staying in the most random hotel that we had to switch elevators and stair cases every floor just to get to our room. So random. One thing that was sure to happen every night in our room was this: A DISASTER! With limited time each morning we had to get ready for bed and be prepared for the next morning every night. It was like packing and re-packing all the time. It got really old.
Florence was beautiful and capped off the Italian portion of our tour perfectly.