Byer Family: Florence (Day 4)

On the morning of our fourth day, we woke up and headed to the Termina in Rome. Fortunately, our hotel was just a quick walk from there. We purchased our train tickets to Florence that morning. We took the high speed train, so it took us just a hour and a half to travel to Florence from Rome.

Upon arrival, we were able to check into our hotel right away. We stayed at Hotel Giotto. We were able to walk everywhere in Florence. Just like in Rome, we used our Italy travel book maps to guide us to the hotel. After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we headed out to explore and to find a place to have lunch.

Our favorite thing about Florence was all of the piazzas. We spend quite a bit of time relaxing with food and/or wine, enjoying the outdoor seating at different restaurants in piazzas.

Our first stop after leaving our hotel was Piazza Della Republica. We ate at Fiorino D'oro. The pizza there was AMAZING... our favorite pizza of the entire trip! They had a pizza for two that had four flavors. We highly recommend the restaurant!

After lunch, we visited the Duomo, Florence's most iconic landmark. It is most definitely a wow factor! We got some gelato and sat on a bench outside the Duomo to take in the beautiful cathedral.

Once finishing our gelato, we walked to Piazza del Signoria to view the David Statue and the outside of the Uffizi Gallery and Old Palace. We chose not to purchase tickets to enter the Uffizi Gallery and Old Palace.

We continued on to the river for a stroll before sharing a bottle of wine at Grillo Ristorante - Pizzeria in Piazza Santa Maria Novella. This turned out to be our favorite piazza of the entire trip! It was a bit less crowded, less noisy, had a few lovely outdoor restaurants overlooking a beautiful grassy area surrounded by flowers in the center of the square.

We topped off the day at a restaurant on our street called II Porcospino. The food was okay... not something we'd highly recommend.

We got some more gelato after dinner (of course), and spent the rest of the evening strolling around the Duomo.