The GREAT ITALY TRIP OF 2015 started off on Tuesday, September 1st.
It was the trip of a lifetime and I am so thankful I got to spend it with my best friend! In mid-August, Kyle found out he needed to attend a compressor test in a little town outside of Florence. Knowing his company and how much they change plans, I didn't get my hopes up too much that I would be able to go. We had plans to travel to Singapore together last July that fell through and I was pretty disappointed. B&V has an awesome policy that employees can trade their business class airfare for two economy seats and take spouses along on trips! We got the go-ahead and booked tickets about a week prior to leaving. My school was great about letting me take off and extremely supportive of everything! Our tickets ended up being significantly cheaper than Kyle's Business Class tickets would have been. He also worked it out that we could stay for 9 days (7 after travel). Seriously...Trip.Of.A.Lifetime!
Disclaimer: I am writing this post TWO MONTHS later. Fail. My memory is getting hazy on the specifics.
We flew to Philadelphia for our connection to Rome. Kyle had some baller status and got us upgraded to FIRST CLASS! We did very well packing the essentials and didn't have a ton of luggage like I imagined we would. My mom and I went shopping the weekend before and got me hooked up with cute outfits that were modest for the churches I would be visiting. That definitely helped me have set outfits and not overpack!
Us that morning driving to the airport.
We connected to Rome and flew through the night. Our seats were in Economy, but that didn't bother us because we were so excited! I read the Dan Brown book, Inferno, which is all about Florence. We also went over our game plan for the week and tried to make sure we had everything covered. Our stupid neck pillows were useless. Do not waste your money!
We landed in Rome early morning on September 2nd (Day 1 in Florence). I remember being nervous about finding the train into Rome and making our connection to Florence. We didn't purchase tickets in advance because we didn't want to be late and miss the train. After a mini internal panic attack on my part we found the train to Rome and got that situation all taken care of. I tend to get a little overbearing in those situations, but Kyle calmed me down and we made it to the Termini Station in Rome without a hitch!
We figured out the confusing train ticket machine and without any direction found our fast train to Florence! GO US!
Holy cow, those trains are speedy.
We arrived at the Santa Maria Novella Train Station and attempted to walk to our hotel without looking at a map. Well, we got lost. Turns out our hotel was just a few blocks away from the station and we had walked right past it!
It was nice, but I guess I was expecting more? It had an unbeatable location, but the room was pretty plain. On the plus side, it was pretty large for a major city. We didn't have a view, and they charged us extra for me to stay with Kyle which was kinda crazy for the price we payed.
We kept our luggage with the front desk and immediately set off to explore the city! We had asked the front desk for a lunch recommendation, but when we got there and saw the menu...let's just say we weren't quite sophisticated enough. We broke out the trust Rick Steve's Guide and found this:
Our first taste of REAL Italian! We are so used to St. Louis Italian that I was a little disappointed at first. The bread in Florence doesn't have salt? So weird. It was flavorless and really hard. That was the first clue that we needed to change our expectations! Overall, we had good food, but people hype it up so much that we were expecting something out of this world. Anything with red sauce was delicious, but the white sauce was more bland than we are used to.
After lunch we tried to explore, but someone (cough cough ME) got hit with major jet lag and needed a serious nap. "They" say not to, but the 2 hour nap totally recharged us and we had a blast walking around the rest of the evening!
The side of the Duomo
Looking down the street from our hotel.
Piazza Santa Maria Novella
The Facade of the Santa Maria Novella
We never went in this one, but I'm sure it was beautiful!
S.M.N. Courtyard
The Arno River
Santo Spirito
Pitti Palace, home of the Medici Family
View from the Ponte Vecchio
Ponte Vecchio
Loggia della Signoria
Palazzo Vecchio
Neptune Fountain
It wasn't on...such a bummer! It was really cool!
Fake David Statue
It was good enough for us! The real statue was in the Academia which had a crazy long line so we opted not to go.
We stopped for dinner at some point, but I don't remember where or anything about it. We walked the city that night and I fell in love. Florence is breathtaking.
The Duomo at night.
One of our favorite Gelato places!
Ponte Vecchio at night
There were talented street performers singing, the temperature was perfect, Kyle was with me...it was a perfect night.
That's a wrap on Day 1 in Florence!
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