Ciao, Firenze!

Dearest readers, in the words of Buddy the Elf:

I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!

I'm sorry Cannes... but I fell in love with Florence. It was marvelous. I'm not sure what exactly about it appeals to me so much, but I didn't want to leave. Plus there's all the food: pizza, gelato, pasta, gelato, coffee. And did I mention the gelato? I had some each day I was there (flavors eaten: tiramisu, cioccolato, nocciola (nutella), caffè). In addition, I had some really, really thick hot chocolate. If you've seen the movie Chocolat, then you know how thick I'm talking:

Oh, sorry, I meant this (but I know you were also thinking this blog needed more Johnny Depp):

The stuff she serves to Armande - which looks like it's just melted chocolate. (Be jealous, Namita).

Om nom nom

So the trek to Italy started with a 6 hour bus ride, which was broken up with a stop in Pisa. To be honest... I was that impressed with the tower. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be - but don't worry, that didn't stop me from taking a picture of me trying to push it back up.

Buckling under the weight

Other Pisa stuff included (of course) a church! And lots of vendors, selling leaning mugs and leaning olive oils and leaning magnets and leaning magnets of leaning mugs (not kidding). It looked like a pretty cute town, too.

Someone was lucky enough to have their skull put in the church

Not in Florence, but I was informed that almost all churches in Florence have stained-glass windows, whereas in Rome very few do

We arrived in Florence right at sunset and went to a place where we could see the entire city

Purity

Our hotel was in a pretty good area, we were close to the river and just had to follow it to get into the old town area. So, picture yourself wandering through streets where there are lots of shops and lots of good smells (waffles, pizza) and LOTS of tourists and then BAM

there's a frickin' giant church. The Duomo, to be exact. My lens was not wide enough to capture it's magnitude, but hopefully this gives you an idea of how ornate it is. The inside is very nice, too; I particularly liked the little candle trees.

Little boy lighting a candle for someone

I was hoping I could recall someone of my Latin to help me speak Italian, but no such luck

Other good parts of the city included a random carousel and the markets. And gelato. That's the last time, I swear.

I wouldn't be me if I didn't creep on some little kids on the carousel

There are really only three stalls at every market, just over and over. Leather, scarves, and random touristy trinkets.

Actually, the fourth stall could be food.

The river (though you can't tell from this photo) was a strange shade of green

So, now my legs are ridiculously sore from all the walking plus being cramped in the bus. But it was definitely worth it. I'm hoping that there's more Florence in my future.