Florence

Mr X and I are back from our trip to Italy this weekend. It was wonderful! On Friday morning we drove to Frankfurt to catch our flight and we were in Italy by 4pm that same day.

On our way to to airport that morning it was around 40 and raining. At the Pisa airport that afternoon it was around 60 and sunny. And on our way back from the Frankfurt airport last night it was snowing.

The transportation strike that was going on in Italy didn't really affect us other than causing traffic to be really slow getting from Pisa to Florence. The little B&B where we stayed was easy to find, spacious and comfortable. A lovely breakfast of warm croissants/yogurt/jam/rolls/hot chocolate was delivered to our room each morning. I had managed to find this place for well within our budget so I was not expecting greatness, in fact I had expected to simply endure a crummy little uncomfortable sort of clean room, so I was thrilled.

We had a delicious and simple pizza dinner on Friday night and called it a night. We spent Saturday and Sunday roaming the city, seeing the sights and doing some shopping for gifts in the markets. Monday morning we hopped on an early bus back to Pisa (our flight wasn't until 4:30) so we could explore that city before leaving. I'll post a bit more on Pisa tomorrow but for now, here are some of our pictures from Florence:


The two pictures above are of the Arno river that runs through the city center. The top picture shows the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge of the city (as you can guess by the name if you know any Italian). During WWII all the other bridges were destroyed except the Ponte Vecchio, which was supposedly ordered to remain intact by Hitler.

These two pictures are of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, known as the Duomo. This cathedral towers over most of the city of Florence and with it's colorful and striking façade it makes a very distinct landmark. (Between this and the river it is fairly easy to navigate around the city center) To learn more about the cathedral, read this.

The outlying countryside which surrounds the city has that very distinct Tuscan look to it, which I love.
I always find myself mesmerized by the narrow winding streets that sprawl throughout the city so here's one of the 50 or so pictures I have of the streets of Florence from this weekend.

And of course, there's the art in Florence. In my case I especially adore the statues. The bottom statue depicts Perseus holding Medusa's severed head as he stands on her lifeless torso. I particularly like this one as I have always enjoyed the intense stories of Greek mythology and the story of Medusa certainly does not disappoint.