Florence, Italy

Stop 2-Florence

We arrived in beautiful Florence and we definitely realized we had traveled north in Italy. It was so much colder and it was very windy! I think I wore my bini, scarf, and gloves at all times, everyday. On the first day in Florence, we went to the Academia, the museum where Michaelangelo's scuplture of "David" is. It was absolutely incredible! We couldn't take pictures otherwise I would have them on here for you to see. David was breathtaking. The statue was much larger than I had expected and it was amazing to see the detail that Michaelangelo put into him. We were in awe of this amazing piece of art. Later that evening, we decided to explore Florence. Below is the Duomo (main cathedral) in Florence. The outside is completely made of marble. It was amazing!!

A lot of the side streets in Florence had beautiful lights strung above them. It was so charming. We loved walking down all the streets getting lost in the city.

Here is Florence at nighttime along the river. I don't know who that person is bending over the side!

GELATO! Yummy, yummy! Gelato is a piece of art in Italy. Look how detailed and beautiful it is. Each flavor was decorated with toppings that made your mouth water. Perhaps it was good that we were there when it was freezing cold, otherwise we would've been eating too much of this!

All over Florence, there were beautiful, quaint little outdoor cafe's. They would be in all of the square's and they are so enticing when you walk by. However, that was a bummer about being there in the very cold of winter (it was around 0 degrees celcius while we were there, sometimes hitting 2 degrees if we were lucky!)-we wanted to eat inside where we could thaw off.

Ponte Vecchio bridge was covered with jewelery stores (the only type of store on the bridge). At night, they would close up their doors and this is what they looked like. I thought they were so cool. Not the normal doors and storefronts you would expect!

I took this picture because it reminded me of my mom (Celeste).

Palazzo Vecchio

One day we decided to climb to the top of the Duomo. We thought it would be cool to see the city from the top, but we also thought it would be nice to warm up by climbing 360-something steps. This picture was taken from about the half-way point. We were still inside the Duomo and it's looking down into the church.

These were the stairs we climbed. You get kind of dizzy because it's a winding stairwell. There's only one way to go up and one way to go down-so if you plan on going, you can't stop and change your mind!

This is looking down the side of the top of the Duomo.

Here is the happy couple ontop of the Duomo. Florence was beautiful to see from this view!

Florence

These are the apartments/homes alongside the river near the Ponte Vecchio Bridge.

This is the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. It is the oldest of the 6 bridges in Florence.

On our last day in Florence, we took a trek up a hill to see an area dedicated to Michaelangelo's work. We climbed a lot of hills and stairs, but boy was the view worth it!!

Here's the fanastic view of Florence. It was such a gorgeous day-still cold, but gorgeous!

This is a view of the hillside-unbelievable.

Here is an upclose picture of the top of the Duomo that we took with our ultra-zoom lense. This is where we climbed to the top. Can you see the little people right above the red roof? That's where we were.

Another view of Florence and the Duomo.

The Ponte Vecchio Bridge