Oh man was this city full of people. You’d have thought we’d be used to it by now but it was crazyyyyyy, anyway I will get to that bit. Our day started very early and we made it to the campsite, slipping in during the morning quiet we were completely unnoticed and thought hey we may get this for free! The tram stop was only around the corner so we hopped on to get to the heart fo the town. The cutest little coffee shop was a perfect start to the day with cheap pastries and coffee but that didn’t mean it was cheap quality. Wandering down the streets we came across the food market of course sometimes I think my subconscious just draws me to these places I must be a secret chubby girl. It was relatively early but there was this pasta stall we couldn’t miss out on. One half was a sort of factory set up where we could see people rolling the freshest pasta and the other half a huge crowd gathered and two people cooked up the pasta that had just been literally thrown across the room to them. It was incredible to watch and even more incredible to devour. If you ever go it was probably one of our top pasta spots in the whole of Italy and trust me if you walk along the ground floor you cant miss it. A short stroll away the streets opened up to the main square where the duomo, church and baptistery dominate the surroundings. We had never seen such beautiful architecture before and wandered around the whole duomo building taking in all the different facets of carved marble in different hues. The queue to enter inside or climb to the top were ridiculously big, so gave that a pass and after investigating in the information building it was sold out for a week. It was high up on my list of things to do so I wish I had looked into it earlier and would suggest that if you want to as well then definitely prebook. Heading through the bustling streets we soon walked into Palazzo Vecchio seeing stunning statues of Perseus, Meduza and the replica of David. We sat in the outdoor gallery enjoying the shade, a relax and some people watching. One woman in particular caught our eye as she attempted to clamber onto the Meduza much to the horror of fellow tourists and the guards who swiflty whistled at her. No more than 2 minutes later she was back this time climbing from a different angle before being whistled at against this time a little more aggresively. You wouldn’t believe it but she even attempted a third time and I genuinely thought the guard was going to mentally combust…that is commitment to the gram if I ever saw it.
For the perfect views over Florence we walked up to the Piazza Michelangelo and committed to only a few moments in the burning heat without shade snapping a few pictures before retreating. It was a beautiful area especially as it offers a postcard perfect picture without the cost of tower entrance fees! We headed back down the stepped slope towards the city snapping up an amazing strawberry and mint granita before watching the sunset from the Ponte Vecchio. So romantic.
The next day we did our usual and hopped onto the tram and into the busy centre. We wanted a relax so headed for a coffee in the cool surroundings of Menagerie as we had gone in early hoping to get a peak into the church before the queues rocked up but even at 8am a full hour before opening it was a good 100m long so we gave up. Instead we used our time to book things for Rome and looked forward to making the most of our tie there knowing we had it all booked. Taking things easy we strolled around the beautiful architecture of Florence soaking it in one last time before heading back. Clearly I wasn’t ready to say goodbye as we dropped into a flea market on the way home. We bought a huge slab of watermelon and also a cafetière so we could whip up our own espresso macchiatos in the van. Our next stop was Rome but I had one place to head to before then…
