I don’t even know where to start with this post. I know I said in my last post that we loved Rome, but we LOOOOOVED Florence a bit more.  It was our favorite city. It was not as busy as Rome and not as quite as Venice, just perfect. When we arrived to Florence, we checked in and quickly went to explore.  Our second day there we went wine tasting in the countryside.  It was such a fun trip!  Cute little towns like Castillina and beautiful scenery, it was all we needed. On that tour we met this really cool couple from Anaheim, CA of all places.  They were there celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. It was pretty awesome talking to them because they had the best marriage advice!! Anyway, I want to go back to this part of Italy just to keep exploring the Tuscan region, so beautiful.  Another reason why I loved Florence so much could be the fact that I had the most amazing pizza. Literally the best pizza of my life!  Yes, I’m going to talk food in EVERY blog post!  It was one of those nights where we hadn’t picked out where to go for dinner, so we just stumbled into Funiculi Pizzeria. I had the O ‘Carrocci pizza! YUM!  Ivan loved his too, but we can’t remember the name.  Enough about food for a second, time to get serious.  One of our days there was a Saturday, so you know what that meant…  WEDDINGS!  We saw many couples and I am telling you it made my trip. Ivan was so patient as I shot all the action around me. Seriously, he is the best.  I just could not help myself.  I HAVE to come back one day as a photographer for a bride… WHO IS GETTING MARRIED IN ITALY? I am ready  😉

Wine country, the Tuscan region, whatever you want to call it, was so beautiful. These guys were practicing for a performance, I sneaked my way behind the building to the sound of the drums and eavesdropped on their practice session.

I adored the coffee in ITALY.  The best thing was that there was no “to go” cups.  Buying a cup of coffee meant staying there to enjoy it. To me that was foreign, yet so nice! I am not sure what is being shot here, but it was pretty cool to watch because there were old vintage cars everywhere. And so the bride sightings begin… I don’t think people understand how excited I was to see this… As I took pictures of one bride this couple had literally just got married. I couldn’t really see them because of the crowd, BUT i did see the flying groom. HA!

Our last day in Florence was memorable.  We spend the day sightseeing, went to see the statue of The David. It was very impressive. How Michaelangelo sculpted this is beyond me.  We then went to the Duomo, The Basilica di Santa Croce, Ponte Vecchio Bridge and Piazza Michelangelo.  Later that day went back to the hotel to freshen up before our dinner.  It was the one dinner in all of Italy we had a reservation for. We were tired of walking so we called a cab to take us.  Our cab driver was “The Situation”. NO joke. Not only did he look like him, he was just as angry. Literally screaming bad words in Italian to other drivers.  It was so entertaining!  I almost wanted to stay in the cab longer to watch him, but I was too hungry. Dinner was at  Trattoria Sostanza. AMAZING.  Several people recommended it to me and I read reviews on TripAdvisor.  It was a small little place, you must make a reservation and they don’t take credit card and is family style seating. It is so mom and pop, I LOVED IT!  I had petti di pollo al burro (chicken fried in butter).  Yup. So good!  The BEST!!  Ivan went with the trippa alla fiorentina (the Florentine steak) it was delicious. AND just when we thought we had it all they bring the wild strawberries dessert. WOW! It melts in your mouth. HA! No really it does.

I KNOW I will see Firenze again! I’m smitten.

Next traveling post, Venice.