My 5 Fave Sites: Florence, Italy

We stayed in Florence longer than any other city in Italy just based off of a hunch - we were so lucky! It was a beautiful city full of sights, shopping and really good food. Actually, it's smaller in scale than one would expect - all of these places we could walk to. And of course, like the rest of Italy, very happy people everywhere (except for the 2 homeless women that cussed me out for not giving them money :-o ).

My 5 Fave Sites

1. Florence at Night - View from Piazzale Michelangelo showing the Duomo, Santa Croce, Palazzo Vecchio and a very happy couple.

2. Drunk Sightseeing at night - Pictures taken after bottles and craft of wines then had forgotten by the next day. The next day, I re-saw the same sites again...de ja vu.

Piazza della Signoria

• Piazza della Signoria in front of Palazzo Vecchio 

From right: Michelangelo's David (replica), Fountain of Neptune (A.D. 1575)

• Basilica of Santa Croce (A.D. 1385).

  

  Notice one picture was taken during the day with hoards of other tourists. The night pictures are once we decided to grab a bottle of wine and drink them on the church steps - way better experience.

• Ponte Vecchio at night (A.D. 996 originally and rebuilt a couple more times)
  

• Now, I'm making plans the next day to see the same things I saw last night...

  

  Notice the wine glass - it was my 1st of the day so don't judge

3. Ponte Vechhio - Sober and during the day, I realized it was a bunch of expensive jewelry stores. It did, however, originally house all types of merchants selling goods. 

View while standing in the middle

4. Street Shots - Local feel of overall happiness

Clockwise from top left: Happy people walking down street, happy people enjoying dinner on Wednesday night, G waiting for me to take pictures of Palazzo Vecchio, our hotel San Gallo

5. Waterfront at Night 

Clockwise from top: St Regis/Westin hotels, our walk home from Pandemonio restaurant towards town, same situation but facing away from town

Overall, I really like Florence, Italy. It was almost like a "little" big city!

Anyone else have great Florence experiences to share?

Best,
Paula