Florence!!

So... this is my Florence update. : )

Florence is such a beautiful city; I actually spent most of my time here just walking around and looking at the city, rather than doing anything in it (because everything costs a lot to get in). We didn't have very good weather on Tuesday or Thursday (the days I was actually in the city), but that's okay.

On Wednesday, we did this bike tour through the Tuscan countryside and it was a B-E-A-Utiful day (you should check out my pictures to see just how amazing it was)! It was quite interesting to re-learn to ride a bike (I'd only ridden once in the last eight years...), but I had a really good time. We got to see how they make and ferment and bottle the wine (and we got to taste it, of course) in this absolutely gorgeous castle. Our guide, Mary, was also pretty amazing; she had a great sense of humor and definitely knew what she was talking about. Basically, the countryside was beautiful, the wine was good, the weather was perfect, and the people were fun. It was just a great day all around.

Then I went and watched the sunset up at Piazzale Michelangelo, and it was wonderful (even more so because I found a sunset setting on my camera).

Thursday I hit up the Duomo, and I was pretty impressed. The inside of the church itself wasn't that cool, but the outside and the cupola and the dome were amazing. I walked all 467 steps to the top, and just relaxed up there for a little bit. It wasn't busy at all, so that was wonderful.

I also visited the Santa Croce basilica, which (unfortunately) was under some sort of construction, so there was lots of not pretty stuff covering all of the pretty stuff, but I still thought it was a wonderful building.

Yeah, even though I didn't see too much, I really enjoyed my time here (especially in the Tuscan countryside), and I am going to post my next update immediately following posting this one documenting my time in Venice.