Italy 2018 - Florence

View from rooftop terrace

We left Venice and drove to Florence. It's a very beautiful drive through Tuscany and we were in Florence by mid-afternoon. Driving in Italy is easy but driving in some of the cities is not so easy. Some cities like Florence have restricted zones where either you need to have a special pass or you need to be going to somewhere specific like we were  going to a parking garage by our Airbnb. However, getting to the parking garage was a little stressful. The streets are narrow and filled with people walking in the streets. There are a lot of one-way streets so we had to take a round-about way to get there. We did make it to the garage without incident and left the car there for the duration of our trip.

I love it when a plan comes together perfectly. I picked an Airbnb off the site using the pictures and reviews. We picked the Ancient Tower in the heart of Florence. It had to be the best place we stayed at on the trip. The host met us when we arrived and took us up to the home which was the top two floors of the tower. After showing us around he took us to the rooftop terrace with an amazing 360 degree view of Florence and the surrounding area. However, the price you pay for the views is a lot of steps to get to the home but is was well worth it. Airbnb is a great option when traveling and I have never had a bad experience.

For the first day we relaxed on the rooftop, enjoying the view with wine, had a great dinner, my son and I had a typical Florence t-bone steak, and then made it back to the rooftop to watch Florence by night. The next day we went up to the top of the Duomo, again great views, saw the Uffizi with it's great artwork and the Ponte Vecchio with it's many shops. We also stopped to have drinks along the way and to also enjoy gelato which Florence is known for. There is so much to see there with the museums, churches, and places like Galileo's observatory that a week may not be enough time. We saw as much as we could in our time and then had to leave for Rome.

My advice is when you are going to Italy to book your museum tours in advance. You pick a time and there will be no line. If you don't book in advance you could be standing in line for hours or not be able to get in at all.

View from top of Duomo

View from Duomo

I found this wood carvers shop by the Uffizi. It reminded me of Geppetto's shop