The next city we visited while in the amazing country of Italy was Florence. Don’t forget to check on all the cities that came before Florence! We stopped in Siena for a quick lunch because several hours on a bus with 40 people can get a little overwhelming at times. It was a good way to break up the driving while also seeing a new place for a short amount of time.

Our first evening in Florence was pretty relaxing as we prepared for a busy next couple of days. It was around this time that at least half of our group was at some various stage of being sick, including me. So a relaxing evening was exactly what I needed. The next day consisted of a walking tour all throughout Florence where we got to take in all the beautiful sights. I am a fan of cool and interesting buildings which were in abundance here.

Our director took us to the one place that she highly recommended to buy authentic Italian leather called Leonardo’s Leather. They showed us a small demonstration of leather and what all we could find at their shop. I ended up buying a really nice wallet for my boyfriend with our initials on it…corny, I know, but he loved it. They had everything you could imagine, belts, purses, jackets, passport holders and more! Later we went to one of the coolest places on the trip for me, San Lorenzo market. This was a two-story market filled with everything you can imagine. You could buy gifts for your family, fresh fish to cook and pizza upstairs. We came here several times to grab food because the inside market had so many different types of delicious food to choose from. I tried my first cannoli here…unfortunately I wasn’t a fan, but everyone else loved them. I’m weird when it comes to desserts.

That night our group headed out to a really fun karaoke bar, Red Garter. They had a legit stage that you got up on and several people from our group got up to sing…including me and a few of the girls singing ‘It Wasn’t Me’ by Shaggy. I mean, what a classic!

The next day we all headed to Cinque Terre for a day trip. I’ve seen all of the iconic pictures of Cinque Terre with the huge cliffs and colorful houses, so I was pretty excited to finally see them in person! We stopped at 3 different villages along the railway, including Manarola and Vernazza, where I had some yummmmmy pesto pasta for lunch. We were able to spend a little time at the beach there as well. It was really a beautiful place, but my only complaint would be that we didn’t have nearly enough time to enjoy it all. We only had the day to spend there and you could definitely explore for at least a couple of days. 

On our last night in Florence, me and my bestie, Heidi, celebrated our one-year friendship anniversary by indulging in a wonderful dinner and a bottle of champagne. We went to a really cute place called La Cantinetta and split a steak and salad. Meeting her solely by chance on my trip to Greece was one of the greatest things to happen to me. You ever have that feeling where you just feel like you’ve known this person in some other life? That’s how it feels with her. Or as we like to call ourselves…”sasters”. 🙂

Florence was a lot of fun for me because I especially liked where our hotel was in relation to many different things to do; shops, bars and places to eat. I think the absolute best thing about the hotel though was the view from their balcony. It really was perfect.

Have you ever been to Florence? What were your thoughts?

Happy travels! 🙂