Today’s adventures happened after about 12 hours of much needed sleep. Jeremy woke up early to fulfill his dream of riding his bike in the mountains of Tuscany. He ended up climbing over 3,000 feet in about an hour and a half on his 19 mile ride. I took a more leisurely route and slept in as much as possible. Oh, and also I prayed for Jeremy a lot and thankfully he was safe riding and living out his dream. Afterwards, we both met up for late breakfast and then caught a train to Florence.
Florence is pretty much amazing, for the record. We visited five years ago on our first European cruise. We love it then, though were pretty limited with time. So you can imagine our delight at returning and getting to spend a full day of adventuring there. We’re big fans of walking and probably spent most of our time just exploring the many beautiful streets.
While hanging out for a few moments and enjoying the warmth of the sunshine in this square, I noticed these girls feeding the birds who would land right on their hands. Being a big fan of feeding the birds (probably thanks to my love of the Mary Poppins song of the same name) I commented to Jeremy that it would be my dream to be able to have wild birds eat from my hand. To which he promptly replied that that exact same scenario would be his worst nightmare. We got a good laugh from it and it made me smile because that is the beauty of our marriage I suppose. We are the same in many ways, but it’s our differences that make us who we are and they also give us some good laughs.
We walked and walked till finally we got to take in this iconic view. It was just as beautiful as the first time we saw it and funny enough, we ended up walking the same streets to find the same gelato place that we had first visited. For the record, if I were to be completely honest, I would disclose that when in Italy, gelato is a daily occurrence. And gelato confession is good for the soul.
Speaking of food, we found the coolest market called Mercato Centrale Firenze to eat at for both lunch and dinner. And while I should have been more adventurous, I just opted for what was most delicious and that was a vegetable crepe made by these incredible ladies. Jeremy was a bit more fun with his artichoke stuffed chicken and then fresh buffalo mozzarella for dinner.
Probably the highlight of our day was visiting the Uffizi Gallery. Jeremy and I are huge fans of art and art museums so that is usually where we end up when we travel.
The Uffizi was an incredible gallery to visit. We loved the art, but it was also the other intricate details of the building that caught our eyes, like this incredible ceiling.
Throughout the gallery there were many religious pieces to appreciate and enjoy. I loved the vibrancy of this piece and the colors in real life were just incredible.
Another ceiling shot. Just absolutely amazing and so beautifully detailed. I think everyone should have this be their #ceilinggoals, right? Thankfully all of the camel poses from my yoga classes made staring at these paintings quite comfortable. I knew there was a reason for that particular pose and I found it here in Florence.
We truly loved the time we had wandering through the halls of the Uffizi. An absolute must if you ever visit Florence. My conclusion would be to go the the Uffizi and then wander up and down the streets because they truly will make you feel brand new (pardon my post title borrowing lyrics from a song meant for New York. For some reason it was stuck in my head while we were wandering today. The streets of Florence did make us feel pretty awesome so, there you go.)
And at the very end of our day, while finishing up another gelato with Jeremy that was big and expensive (I’d like to blame the language barrier for me not realizing that a big cone equals big scoops of gelato and that sometimes they hide the smaller cones towards the back where you don’t see them) but worth every Euro we hopped back on our train and headed back to our hotel.
Overall, Florence was an absolute delight and the perfect way to spend today. Thanks for following our adventures and we will look forward to what tomorrow will bring.
Laura Herr Photography 