Got up and out of the apartment by 8:30 - our train was at 10am and we weren't sure how early we needed to be there (turns out about 20 minutes is good) and it was a 15 minute walk to the station. Not many choices at the station so I got my chocolate croissant and caffelatte at mcdonald's - surprisingly good! And they have a McToast (ham and cheese) for Matthew) Kaitlyn had a good, though very expensive smoothie and a smoothie shop. I slept a bit on the train and woke up to gorgeous views of the Tuscan countryside before we pulled into Florence (Firenze). Got in just before noon and walked through a very cold wind to our airbnb. We were lucky that we were able to check in right away. We had two enormous rooms - each with a bathroom and with frescoes on the ceiling and an upper balcony on one - gorgeous! Tony happened to notice an all you can eat italian buffet restaurant on our way, so we hit that for lunch. Total locals spot and it was very yummy. The desert was a huge thing of mascarpone cheese smothered in a fruit sauce. After lunch, we headed to the accadamia to see David. Unlike the sistine chapel, this was much more impressive than I thought it was going to be! From there we went to a Leonard davinci museum that is dedicated to his inventions and has reproductions that you can actually try out - pretty cool. From there we walked to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge over the Arno river. It was beautiful - the bridge itself was full of jewelry shops. Went into one where you had to ring the bell, they were very nice to me when I asked the price of a gorgeous mikimoto pearl necklace! :) We saw lots of gelato shops - they present the gelato differently than in Rome - It is usually heaped up and then they decorate it with whatever the flavor is. Headed back to the airbnb and let Matthew hang there while Kaitlyn, Tony and I went for dinner. Adorable little resaurant - I haad a fabulous white pizza with raddichio, blue cheese and walnuts. Kaitlyn had a huge calzone and Tony had Ragu pasta. The waitress brought us limoncellos on the house afterwards (Tony and I, not Kaitlyn!). Went back out for Gelato afterwards, I got hazelnut with nutella and Kaitlyn got a caramel crepe. Around 9pm all of us headed out to the Duomo because my phone said it was open until 10pm - turns out that's the bar next to the cathedral also called the Duomo! Bought tickets online to climb the Duomo tomorrow.
electronics on the train
Duomo
airbnb
ceiling in our room in airbnb
lunch buffet
David!
early tank
mirror writing
huge calzone!
limoncello!
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