Italy - Florence

Florence was wonderful!  The highlight was definitely the Fiat 500 wine tour, but the amazing views of the city were a close second.  

Just a couple of backpacking kids:)

The window Matt is pointing to on the second floor was our room.

The airbnb.com room we rented had a FANTASTIC location right next to the Palazzo Vecchio and Uffizi Gallery.  It was an awesome one bedroom apartment on this super cute street.

We hit the Boboli Gardens at the Palazzo Pitti first.

Then we made the long, taxing trek up to the San Miniato Basilica and Piazza Michaelango.  The stairs were endless, but the views were amazing. 

They had Ferrari's up there that you could rent for tons of money for like 10 minutes.

Wine pit stop

Palazzo Vecchio

We picked up pizza, pasta, wine and gelato for dinner at home.  We're so Italian you can't even take it.

Starting the day at the Duomo.

A visit to the market

A little cappuccino and ham sandwich for breakfast, obviously.  The Italians aren't big on breakfast food.  

This was the line for our "reserved" entrance time into the Accademia to see the David.  We were SOOO mad that we had to wait over an hour to get into the museum, even with a 10am reservation (that apparently meant nothing).  We had to get to our wine tour, so after wasting all of our museum time in line, we ended up having only about 90 seconds to view the David and get outta there.

We still saw him, though, and he was magnificent!

The good news is, we got to our tour on time and it was super fabulous.  Matt could hardly even fit in the car!  Good thing it had a sunroof.

Gorgeous views

Open, winding roads through Tuscany.

Vineyards everywhere you look.

We came back to this gorgeous villa for our wine tasting.  This villa is a winery, too, so we got to sample their wines.

Our tasting was in the wine cellar.

Our guide/sommelier, David, and one of the other tour guests.  The other tour members were so fun!  We had a great time with them.

Before and after - not much left!

We went straight to the Uffizi after our tour and saw more beautiful pieces of art.

Nerd alert!

Lasr dinner in Florence, we went to the other side of the river where the "locals" go.

Pasta with seafood for Matt

Mushroom risotto for me.  More Chianti please!

Facetiming with Lukers after dinner.

Heading to the train station early the next morning.

Good bye Florence!

Next up, Cinque Terre!