Florence

Ack, I'm so LAZY when it comes to updating this thing!  I find organizing all of the pictures incredibly daunting and I've been "kind of" busy lately.  But it's so beautiful and I'm sitting outside and I was reading Katherine's blog and I thought I should update mine!  Now I will tell you about my last leg of my solo spring break trip through Italy, ending in Florence.

I first made it to Florence on April 1st and (of course) I got lost!  But I made my way to the info office and realized I just read my map wrong and went right instead of left.  My hostel was very different from the one in Rome and my eventual stop in Milan.  It was like a huge business, you could definitely tell this hostel was a chain.  I was unable to check in right away so I set out to find food and walk around a bit and found a sandwich shop by the owners of Il Brincello (where I ate later that night) and man was it incredible!  They have a simple menu of different sandwiches to choose from and you can choose to put it on toasted foccacia or regular Italian bread.  I didn't understand much, but I went with mortadella, sliced (!!!) parmesan, and balsamic vinegar.

I came back two more times during my stay!

Most of my time in Florence was spent walking around.  The internet in the hostal didn't work so I had a hard time planning out my time like I did in Rome, so I picked random places on my map and just went there!  And before anyone asks, no, I did not go to the faaamous museums to see the David and other treasures of Florence.  1) They were terribly expensive and crowded and 2) I had to make an appointment to get into them!  It was far too pretentious for my "My vacation, my rules" mantra so I decided to do other things.

Some of these places, I could not even begin to tell you where I was as I walked around aimlessly almost every day.  Sometimes I would even say "let's get lost" and I did.  So this picture of Santa Maria Del Fiore and the horse below?  I don't know where I was.

This basilica (Santa Maria del Fiore) and the David are probably what Florence is most known for in the way of monuments.  I was absolutely taken by this basilica.  Unlike the ones I've seen in Rome, Milan, and Spain, most of the decoration was on the outside of the building instead of inside.  But it was incredible.  Soft corals, deep green, depictions of biblical events.  This basilica is incredible.

 Stained glass inside the basilica.

If only our bell tower at State looked like this!

This was my proof for the world that "style" and "italian" are not always synonymous.  Though right after I saw this dude, I stumbled into a charming vintage shop!

 I found this little fella beside a hotel garden.

I feel bad for the little girls that are possibly wearing this shirt in an English speaking country.  You're*

 Po lil tink tink had to hold up this steal grate all on his own.

As the sun was setting.

One of my days was dedicated to gardens so I decided to venture across the river Arno to the Pitti Palace, home of the Boboli Gardens.  Unfortunately I couldn't gain access to the main gallery with the ticket I bought to see the gardens.  So instead of spending a ton on buying both tickets, I chose the rarely chosen option of visiting the porcelain museum, silver museum, costume gallery, and Bardini Gardens and I was not disappointed.

 Anyone who knows anything about me knows that tree tunnels make me swoon and the Boboli Gardens were full of them.

The gardens were an incredible layout of intricate fountains, hedges, trees, and ridiculously steep hills.  I'm sure I could have spent all day there and not seen everything there is to see.

I initially thought this hill would be a breeze to climb, and I even wore flats that day because "hey, gardens will be easy!" Wrooong.  This was K2 in disguise and I about passed out fat girl style with my hands on my knees panting like I'd never walked in my life.

However, it lead to this awesome view.

The back of the Pitti Palace

 Views from the porcelain museum.

This is a random shot of Florence from some unknown part of the gardens.

I took this charming little street down to the Bardini Gardens, a much smaller and secluded garden.

View of the side of Basilica de Santa Croce from the Bardini Gardens.  What's interesting about this one basilica is that the facade is in the same style as Santa Maria, but the rest of the building is in brown brick.  The Santa Croce area is also home to a world class leather school and many many leather merchants.  Famous names such as Galilei, Machiavelli, and Rossini are buried at Santa Croce.

 Camellia in the garden.

 I tell you what, I fell in love with lemons in the citrus house at the Bardini Gardens.

This guy was just studying poetry or something worthy of me taking is picture without him knowing.

The Bardini Gardens were veeery high up, as high, if not higher than Piazzle Michelangelo.  This is from the street at the bottom of the gardens which you can sort of see.

 Back at Santa Maria during sunset.

This guy reminded me of Hermés and I just watched him for a bit.

This incredible building is a synagogue.  I thought about going in until they wanted to charge me 6.50 euro for entry.  Call me cheap, but it didn't feel right to pay entry to a place of worship, felt too much like a business.  And no pregnant women were allowed?

 This picture is from my "market and leather day" or my last day where I visited all the markets on my map and experienced some leather.  This was in one of the shops I passed and I initially just stopped outside (can't afford anything!) and watched this man making a leather jacket.  The owner of the shop spotted me and kindly invited me in to watch his father make some art.  Every piece was hand measured and cut and then given to his female counterpart to piece together and sew.

On the same day I made the trek to the top of Florence to see Piazzle Michelangelo.  During this time it rained mud (all the rain on my jacket turned into brown dirt) and I probably took the longest route possible to get here.  But as you can see, it was all worth it to see all of Florence.

The Bardini Gardens, where I was the day before!

This door might seem like nothing, but it is actually the entrance for the house of Gucci.  My last day was a little hard because I was running out of things to do since I had decided not to go to the main museums.  So I visited the archaeological museum with a group of elementary school kids and went to a botanical garden with nothing in it but grass (I also managed to set off some alarm in the bathroom).  But while I was taking a rest in the large Piazza del Signora I noticed that there was a Gucci museum.  I thought it'd be a neat thing to see and I highly underestimated it!  It had everything from the first luggage lines, to a gucci designed cadillac, to incredible oscar gowns.  I was enamored with every little piece.  In one of the hallways I noticed on a picture that it said the first residence of the house were in Florence and I quickly jotted down the address it had in the description.  After visiting Piazzle Michelangelo I thought "why not? Let's go find Gucci." And I did!  It's on this small off shoot of a street that was barely populated, and there it was.  One of the largest names in fashion, right off the beaten path.

I feel like I'm missing so much and I could probably keep writing as I'm full of stories but boring you is not my intention here.  I just want you all to get a glimpse at what I've been experiencing here.  I'll do an Instagram round up for the next post but some things that aren't pictured are: all of the markets I visited, various piazzas, all of the gelato and cappuccinos I devoured, the fabulous dark chocolate and chili gelato, the beautiful postcard I bought my mom (that we think is lost in the mail!), and much much more.

-Autumn