To finish up our vacation in Italy, we took the train from Rome to Florence, where we stayed at another great hotel literally 100 yards from the Duomo. Florence is probably my favorite Italian city, and it was great to go back there and wander through the markets, climb to the top of the Duomo, and overall just have a relaxing end to our break. I could probably talk about it forever, but I think the pictures do the city more justice!
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| Our room at the Tourist House Duomo in Firenze |
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| First meal in Florence: potato pizza at a place called PizzÁ |
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| The Ponte Vecchio |
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| Molly and Melanie preparing to make the climb up to Piazzale Michelangelo, where the David was originally kept and where Da Vinci attempted (or made his friend attempt) the first hang-glider |
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| View on the way up |
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| Almost there! |
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| Fall in Italy |
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| The view from the top |
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| A replica of the David - this was where the original used to live, but it got too damaged due to weather so they moved it to the Accademia |
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| The rooms in our hotel were all named after famous Italians - we had Michelangelo Buonarroti |
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| Typical breakfast in Firenze - un croissant con un caffe latte |
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| We met up with our friends Brenda and Andrea while in Florence! |
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| Molly and I eat gelato at slightly different speeds.. |
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| Il Fiume Arno |
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| La Chiesa di Santa Croce, home to the funeral monuments of a bunch of famous people |
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| The Piazza outside of the Santa Croce -- this is where the best gold and leather shops in Florence can be found |
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| Statue of Dante Aligheri |
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| Galileo's funeral monument |
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| Michelangelo's funeral monument |
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| Aligheri's funeral monument |
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| Machiavelli's funeral monument |
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| Sculpture/Engraving done by Donatello of Mary and the angel Gabriel |
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| The main altar |
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| The courtyard outside the church |
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| Molly, Fana, and Andrea at lunch right outside the Santa Croce |
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| Brenda, Melanie, and I |
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| We split two delicious pizzas for lunch, |
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| and of course topped it off with a Lemonsoda. |
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| My high school Italian teacher worked at this restaurant when she was studying abroad, so I took my friends there for dinner - it was just as delicious as I'd remembered! |
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| Molly and I at dinner |
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| Tortellini di prosciutto e panna |
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| The restaurant, L'Osteria del Gatto e la Volpe (the hotel of the Cat and the Wolf, two characters from Pinocchio -- the menu was Pinocchio themed and had things like "Aperitivi del Grillo Parlante" ; The Talking Cricket's Appetizers) |
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| The Duomo! |
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| Climbing the 417 steps to the top of the Duomo.. |
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| Room on the way up to the top -- some statues, I have no idea who of |
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| On the way up.. our motivation to keep climbing! |
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| Made it! |
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| The building to the left is the Duomo Bell Tower.. which we heard every couple of hours it felt like |
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| Another view of the bell tower |
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| Making our way back down.. |
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| We went to the restaurant where the cast of the Jersey Shore worked while in Florence.. and found this door, signed by none other than Snooki. |
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| Our last dinner in Italia -- I got penne with a steak and wine sauce, hands-down the best meal of the trip! |
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| Outside of the Duomo on our last night |
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| We flew out of Pisa, so of course we had to stop by the Leaning Tower on our way out |
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| We took a lot of pictures of the tower, but also of people posing next to the tower.. my favorite was this cowboy here |
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| Necessary. |
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| L'ultimo espresso in Italia |
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| Last meal in Italy - Foccacia ripiene con prosciutto e formaggio |
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| More pictures from our last night in Florence.. Melanie and I thought we'd treat ourselves to a waffle, so we got one with gelato, chocolate, and whipped cream, only to have the guy put ANOTHER waffle on top (Oh, and they cost 11 euros each - not going to miss how expensive Italy is). |
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| On the carousel in Piazza della Repubblica |
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