Florence + Venice

Good morning!

Writing to you from the train en route to Paris which means I'm officially done with the Italian portion of my trip... Sad face. 

After leaving Rome on Wednesday, I headed to Florence for a few days. Despite being in Italy for nearly two weeks at that point, it was my first time actually being alone and to be honest, it kind of felt weird.
I had a few incredible weeks with some amazing people and to know that I wouldn't be seeing them anymore didn't make me a happy camper. 

Butttttt....I put on my big girl panties and reminded myself that I planned a solo trip  and was just fortunate to have had it easier than expected. So off I went to Florence....

First mission - find my way to my hostel. Yes, hostel. First and only hostel stay of this trip and life for that matter (Plus Florence if anyone is actually wondering). I had my trusted sidekick Google Maps with me but I think he was having an off day and soooooo... I got lost. There's a first for everything I guess! Luckily it wasn't such a disaster and I managed to find my way there without getting a heat stroke.        

Since it was only 10am, I obviously couldn't check into my room so I dropped off my bags and started wandering the city. Luckily, the hostel was in a prime location that many of the major attractions were within walking distance.  

Surprisingly, Florence wasn't too difficult to navigate. I had no map nor did I use my phone... Score! It's the simple things that make you feel so accomplished! 

I saw the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, endless shops, piazzas, churches annnnnnnnd the most beautiful caged butterflies. Random yes I know but I guess it was Florence Fashion Week and some designer had created a street front butterfly exhibit. For those of you who know me well enough know my love of butterflies so I was just filled with oh so much joy!

Here are a few snaps:

Lunch...

Before I had left on my trip, my friend Beth put me in touch with a friend of her's that lives in Florence, Arianna. After my initial wander, Arianna offered to meet up with me to show me around some more. She's a doll! She's training to be a certified tour guide so it was the perfect win-win situation for us both. Of course, we had to stuff our faces (and our hair) with more gelato!

This was my second round of gelato for the day and flavours 4, 5 and 6. Ain't no shame in my gelato game. Don't hate. We've got some lemon, orange and berry goodness happening here. Oh. Em. Gee. Soooo sooooooooo deeeeeeelish. 

We planned to meet back up later in the evening for some drinks so back on my own I was in the meantime. 

Had my first solo dinner at Bondi:

Again, a little weird at first but I manned up and enjoyed a delicious meal. 

Arianna, her friend Ela and I later met up for some drinks. Man, Italians sure know how to make a cocktail. No measuring of shots happening over here. Amen! We roamed around town for a bit and stumbled upon a popular tourist bar. We shoulda stopped at that but we decided to go in and check it out.  Just try to imagine hundreds of sweaty, college, drrrrrrunnnnnkkk as eff kids dancing aka falling all over the place. We lasted all of 5 minutes and fought our way out. Fresh air hallelujah!

We decided to do a midnight trek up to Piazalle Michelangelo which offers stunning views of Florence:

Day 2 I ventured off to Pisa because no trip to Italy would be complete without seeing the Leaning Tower, right? It was a short 45min train ride from Florence so I planned to just do it in the middle of my afternoon.

To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed by it. I have nooooo idea what I was actually expecting but I'm glad I visited it anyway. I didn't go up nor did I pose for one of those cheestastic "look mom I'm holding up the tower!" photos...just attempted the very difficult mission of capturing a selfie with the entire tower in it. It really isn't thaaaaat easy! But I managed and once satisfied, headed back to Florence.

In the evening, my dormmate Nicole and I ventured into the city as she had been stuck inside all day fighting a cold. Since I'd already done my fair share of exploring, I lead the way like a true local...ha! Lots of fashion forward men in Florence I must say, it was like everyone just stepped out of a GQ magazine...no complaints from this girl. Anyways, Nicole and I had both felt a little maxed out with Italian food so managed to find ourselves a nice little sushi spot outside of the tourist area. Little bit of a trek out but sooooo worth it! €20 for all you can eat is my kinda deal! 

We needed to digest dinner and Nicole hadn't been to Piazzle Michelangelo yet so we booted it up there. Although we missed the sunset, we caught a little dusk action which made for some amaaaaaazing views!

On our walk home, I was impressed with Florence's nightlife. It was a Thursday night and the streets were packed with well dressed folks and performers but I was a granny and called it a night since I had an early morning date with David before my train to Venice. 

So as you can see, I visited Accademia on Friday morning (make sure you purchase museum/gallery tickets in advance to avoid the ridic line ups). I couldn't leave Florence without seeing Michelangelo's magnificent Statue of David. It was muccccch larger than I anticipated. The gallery itself was fairly small but was filled with tons of religious artwork and sculptures. Uffizi Gallery is also one of the top ones but unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to visit that one.

And with that quick visit to Accademia, Florence was wrapped and I was off to Venice. 

I don't really have too many stories from Venice. I spent two very low key days there completely solo. I was told the city is one of the harder ones to navigate and yessss I sure did learn that! I had no map and didn't use my phone either...just let myself wander through the streets and discover little gems along the way. At the end of my first day, I must have walked in a circle for nearly an hour, passing the Rialto Bridge at least 4 times trying to find my way out of the city but with much determination, I finally won and was back off to my apartment. 

My plan was the same for the second day - wander. This time I felt a lot more comfortable and am hapy to report that no circles were walked! I was hoping to catch the boat tour of the nearby island of Murano but I missed the departure so settled on a gondola ride instead. Oh what a shame!!! 

Venice is a visually stunning little city and no photos can do it justice but here's my attempt:

People watching the Italy vs Costa Rica match

Last gelato in Italy :((((( 

And my last deeeeeelisssh meal

And with that, so concludes my adventures in Italy. I will surely miss the lack of judgement for having gelato, pasta and wine all day. Also will miss this being a perfectly acceptable breakfast: 

Update: It's now the next day in Paris. I got hit with waaaaay too much motion sickness to finish writing this yesterday. 

Ciao Ciao Italia...bacio! 

Bonjour Paris!!!