I have been dreaming all season of going to Italy and just eating and drinking and seeing for days. And I’m so blessed that I was able to take this trip at the end of the season. I got a little spoiled because I got to see SO much of Italy, even though it was all crammed into a week. I can’t believe we saw all we were able to see. And the food…OH. MY. GOSH. Safe to say I did not go a day without gelato, pasta and wine 🙂 After our day in Venice, we took a train heading for Rome and stopped in Florence for another day to tour the sights and eat some more yummy food. Florence definitely did not disappoint. (none of Italy really did :)) We began at the Duomo and pretty much wandered the whole day. 
Alyssa and I went into the Basilica of Santa Croce which we were shocked to see had no line to get in. It is this killer cathedral that houses the remains of many famous philosophers and artists, the likes of Galileo and Michelangelo. The entire floor of the church was covered in tombs so it was a little creepy, but so cool to be able to connect a real physical place to people we spent years reading about in school. (It inspired me to start the book, Angels and Demons, a lot of which is connected back to things in Rome and Florence) 
I had a massive gelato before I even made it to lunch and we managed to dodge rain and pop into a bomb restaurant just off the river. After lunch we walked across the famous Ponte Vecchio for some killer views of the Arno River. And got lost on the way up to Michelangelo Plaza, so we ended up jumping in a cab so we could see it before we had to get on the next train for Rome. 
Definitely some of the most breathtaking views we had the whole trip. And this performer was blowing masses of bubbles that I got to play in with the kids 🙂 After a long day we headed back to our hotel to gear up for another train ride to Rome. Stay tuned for that next! 
