Florence!!

We love Florence!! It is such an amazing place. We rented a studio apartment very close to the train station and the Duomo. The only down side was that every morning at 7:30 the street vendors would come right down the street carrying their rickety carts--it was so loud! These street vendors created a gauntlet that you had to walk down to get to the heart of the city. Thankfully they weren't as in your face as vendors in Paris.
The first night we just walked around, had dinner, and got gelato. Ah the infamous galato adventure. Okay, so I love ice cream--love it. Therefore when the gelato lady asked me what size I wanted I pointed to a cone that looked like a medium. She says "Oh you want a large. How many flavors do you want?" This should have been a sign, but it wasn't. I only wanted nutella because I don't mix flavors or anything for that matter. She then starts to shovel ice cream into this cone. It was huge. The picture I posted really shows my excitement. She then asked Ronny what he wanted. There was no way I would be eating that monster on my own, and he said so. It was a 12 euro ice cream--whoops. I felt bad, but it was amazing!
The next day we went to the Uffizi, a museum encompassing the artistic developments of the Renaissance. We got to see the famous "Birth of Venus". The museum was neat, but we realized that we aren't really art people. Ah well, we can check it off the list. We also went to the Science Museum and saw Galileo's middle finger. Yeah, it was riveting. We also walked around the Santa Maria Croce, the burial place of Michelangelo. They have a really neat leather workshop there too. Handmade leather goods that are just amazing. I touched a 100 euro wallet--it was just on display for anyone to touch! We walked so much the first day. We climbed the steep steps to the Piazza Michelangelo for the most amazing view of the city. For dinner we went to the most amazing family run restaurant. Both of our dishes had shaved truffles on them!!
The next day we went to the Duomo built at the end of the 13th century. It was amazing! We also climbed the 463 steps up to the top of the dome. That was an adventure! Then we just took it all in. We didn't fo to see the original David because we could see the replica for free in it's original spot. You see one naked statue you've seen them all. Those poor models immortalized in stone and marble were not given any favors if you catch my drift!
Florence has so much to offer. It's a lot of walking though. I think after these "vacations" we were in a desperate need of a vacation.