Florence Travel Blogs, Travelogues and Travel Journals - Page 3

After a great breakfast of cereal, bacon and eggs we headed out to check out the areas we'd seen as well as the others that Florence is famous for. We decided to walk through the market area on the way to the Duomo – lots and lots of leather on sale in the form jackets, bags, belts, braclets. Thankfully we weren't constantly pressured to check out everyones stall like you get at most markets. In fact I don't think any of the sellers said anything to us unless we had stopped and wa…

Because of the insanely crazy gas prices (and the crazy Italian traffic), we opted to take the train for the majority of our trips.  It was simple and a lot more relaxing.  My husband needed the break from driving anyway and I needed to calm my nerves.  I have never seen so many daredevils in my life.  The motorscooters and motorcycles were the scariest.  The would come up between cars on a two lane highway at full speed and not even wearing proper gear!  I could…

Bonjourno!  Got to Florence yesterday evening and am having an amazing time.  The only thing I have resembling a complaint is the smell.  Dogs do their business everywhere...streets, sidewalks...and there is no grass...so that makes it a little worse!  An evening stroll was in order after the finest Italian meal I have ever had...the only one I have ever had!  Until today...that shall come later.  I miss you all so much, but I loved walking down the river and goi…

Oh wow, the boys, the boys, the boys! Everywhere I looked, I swooned, they are just so garsh darn good lookin'. I wish I could move to that wonderful city to boy watch for the rest of my life. I loved them so much I even took some stalker photos of the really good ones, and let me tell you, I looked at them for the rest of the trip!!!(not really). But anyways, I had a blast in this place. It was great. For the morning we did a walking tour and it was great. Walked on past the ponto vecchio an…

2 summers ago ,i went to Italy and i was travelling around Rome,Tuscany and north of Italy visiting friends of my Erasmus year,i had a dream from children,to visit Tuscany, and to be missing in Florence,finally i got it... visiting the Medici´s Academia i was a happy guy

Our next stop in Italy was that famous Renaissance capital of culture, Florence. Like Venice, this place was chock full of tourists wandering about the historic downtown. Because of the crowds, there were also an unbelieveable number of illegal merchants hawking their wares. Every free space on the street was taken up by chumps selling knockoff handbags, prints of famous paintings, and other tourist bait. The best part about it all was how quickly these vendors packed up and ran away if they …

(cont'd...) The sun was winding down when we boarded the bus going back to Santa Maria Novella from Piazalle. Another bus route means different things to see, but then again, it could snag you elsewhere. It happened to us that afternoon. Anyway, we reached our intended destination a little later. The area of Santa Maria Novella is the arrival and departing point of Florence when you travel by train. This is where we finally took a leisurely stroll after being lost.&nb…

I never thought that i can visit Europe so early, at least totally out of my expectation. Travelling is always my passionate. In Oct year 2005, my best buddy Lyn and decided we want to travel to Europe , eventhough is only 10days but like that i said, these golden momeries still linger in my mind now... till now. Sometimes when we talked about everything during our europe journey, we can't help to think about every single things, scenes, peoples, building we've seen.......

- The first Italian words I heard were "Mamma Mia!" as a man tried to get on a really full train - I hear the word "Prego" about five times a day. It means a bunch of stuff, including you're welcome. So if I ask someone to take my picture and then I say "grazie", they respond with "prego". I laugh a little on the inside each time I hear it - I looked up the work "ragu" and it means nothing more than "tomato and meat sauce" - The Italians have nothing on the French when it comes to pastries…

Two views of the entire city:1- from the top of the duomo...nearly 500 steps to the top!2- from piazzale michelangelo...on the top of a hill across the river. it was eerily stormy/ cloudy while we were up there...but it never rained

The quest to arrive in Florence was quite the battle.. it began smoothly as we hopped onto our train in Venice, but slowly changed to one which tested our patience as we arrived in Bologna to meet a train which was to arrive at 13:20, but arrived 40 minutes late and so full of people that we did not make the train. Instead we searched for another, traveled to information, and followed the masses to the bus info station. We decided to see if we could push our way onto the next train. We ended …

Thanksgiving, Italian style was actually very similar to Thanksgiving, Asian style.  In that there was a giant roast beef instead of turkey.  And that there was cheesecake for dessert.  Unlike Asian Thanksgiving in that the waiter kept encouraging me to drink grappa for the digestive system until the little old man who owned the restaurant said to stop because I couldn't handle it.  Hahaha...they must get a lot of Japanese tourists in there to be able to recognize the Asia…

I love Italy and I loved this trip. I made an highlight list for this one! The Duomo and Baptiserum of Florence! You just have to see it. The Duomo's dome is famous for being the first one with a dome out of one piece what is very special of course. And the colours are just unbeleiveble, especially when the sun is shining, which is most of the time :) Then the Baptiserum, you really have to take a close look on the doors with their golden reliefs. I was stunned! The San Miniato al Monte …

Florence was amazing! We spent most of the day a few blocks from the Duomo.  We shopped and just walked around all day! It was such a wonderful day! We had the best pizza ever at the little bitty resteraunt, we each got an entire pizza to ourselves, which we werent expecting, but enjoyed nonetheless!  It was great! Thats all I can say!

Seeing Florence for the first time can be quite overwhelming.  The sheer amount of art and history is mind blowing...the whole city is like one huge museum!  One of the world's oldest and most famous being the Uffizi Gallery which houses Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" and "La Primavera" among numerous other well known pieces of art.  Another site impossible to miss and the crown jewel of Florentine architecture is the domed cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, or The Duomo.&nbs…