Lucca (Day 6)

On the morning of day 6, it was time for us to say goodbye to Florence and board a train to Lucca.

We bought tickets to Lucca on the regional train for a 9:20am departure. Note: Make sure to check the descriptions on the computer before printing your ticket. We made the mistake of not making note, and we missed our train because Lucca was just a stop along the way to a further destination. From there on out, we took a picture of the itinerary on the screen before printing our tickets. We only made that mistake once. Since it was a regional train trip, we were able to hop on the next train to Lucca at 11:30am. We waited for a couple of hours in our favorite piazza in Florence, Santa Maria Novella.

Once we arrived in Lucca, we walked to our Bed and Breakfast, B&B Casa Alba. It was a very cute little place, and the owners were very nice! We paid in Euro when we arrived as we wanted to leave early the next morning for Pisa.

Once our things were settled in, we walked to eat a late lunch at Gabry's Cafe in Piazza del Salvatore. This was probably our least favorite meal of the trip. It wasn't terrible, but it did not seem all too authentic.

After lunch, we got gelato and walked past Cattedrale di San Martino and then onto the city walls. Lucca is surrounded by beautiful Renaissance walls on which you can walk, run, and bike. We strolled along the walls for quite some time. While we were in Lucca, there was a car show, so we enjoyed seeing old cars and new Ferraris.

After strolling for awhile, we stopped back at the hotel for a short nap and then walked to Piazza Anfiteatro for wine. We shared a bottle at Risto Bar L'Emiliana. We ate dinner at Trattoria Da Leo, recommended by our tour book. We loved the atmosphere, and the food was pretty good.

We got some more gelato and strolled along the moat that also surrounds the city before calling it a night.

One of the first beautiful churches we saw in Lucca

The Renaissance wall surrounding Lucca

Strolling along the wall with our gelato

The outside of the wall

The countryside was beautiful

One tunnel to enter/exit the city

Posing next to some vents on top of the wall

Just strolling

One of the many old cars in the car show

The moat

People seriously hang dry their laundry like you see in the movies

One of the many beautiful churches

More cars in the car show

Sharing our pre-dinner wine

Patrick, enjoying the free appetizers offered

Where we had our happy hour bottle of wine

Patrick, posing in Piazza Anfiteatro

Picture of the piazza sign

Very narrow streets

Our dinner restaurant

Pretty neat how they served their liters of wine

Patrick, posing with our post-dinner gelato in front of our bed and breakfast door

Cheesin'

Florence (Day 5)

Day 5... we woke up at the hotel and ate some breakfast. It definitely did not compare to our hotel breakfast in Rome.

Once finished with breakfast, we walked to Ponte Vecchio, Florence's iconic bridge. The bridge is entirely filled with jewelers on either side of the street. We did a little window "shopping" - looking while walking the bridge. We were close to the far side of the bridge when all of a sudden a man sprinted out of one of the jewelry shops. We witnessed a burglary! The male owner tried to chase the man down, the woman cashier screamed after the robber, and many people tried to grab the man to no avail! It was actually quite frightening. He dropped some of the jewelry, and many people picked it up and brought it back to the owner. The Italian police showed up and cruised the area for quite some time, looking for the burglar.

Once we left the excitement on the bridge, we strolled our way past Palazzo Pitti and Piazza de Pitti, a vast palace and piazza to see the Giardino di Boboli, the palace's expansive gardens. We peeked in on the gardens but chose not to purchase entrance tickets.

Once viewing the gardens from afar, we walked up the hill to Piazzale Michelangelo, trekking our way up the hill to view the panoramic landscape of Florence. WOW! What a gorgeous view! We trekked further up the hill to Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte (a church) to see another gorgeous view of Florence below. We stayed on the far side of the river and ate lunch at an outdoor restaurant. Once lunch was finished, we had to get some gelato for dessert. We went to La Carraia, which came HIGHLY recommended for a reason. We ate some of the best gelato of the trip here.

We headed back to the hotel late afternoon for a short nap before heading back to Piazza Santa Maria Novella (our favorite) to share a pre-dinner bottle of wine. Once finished with our wine, we decided to stay at the restaurant for some dinner and enjoy some more wine of course.

 Ponte Vecchio

Palazzo Pitti

Giardino di Boboli

Patrick posing outside of Giardino di Boboli

Statue of David replica in Piazzale Michelangelo

Panoramic view of Florence

Hus... contemplating life with a gorgeous view

GORGEOUS!

Enjoying the view!

A very nice elderly couple took our picture.

Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte

Florence from Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte

Beautiful Gothic church

Another picture overlooking Florence from Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte

Crazy delicious gelato!

Time for our pre-dinner wine!

Loved this piazza!

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.

Lunch time at Fiorino D'oro

Our cute restaurant

Piazza Della Republica

Our first sighting of the Duomo

Enormous door of the Duomo!

Inside the Duomo

The Duomo

Uffizi Gallery 

A replica of the David Statue (we did not go inside to see the real one)

Patrick stopped to snap a pic along the river

River stroll

The river view was spectacular!

The Old Bridge... Ponte Vecchio

Selfie along the river

Piazza Santa Maria Novella 

Pre-dinner wine at Grillo Ristorante - Pizzeria

In Piazza Santa Maria Novella

Just strolling before dinner, the hubs was just snapping pics...

Duomo lit up at night

Our hotel