Parting Ways and Heading Home

After our morning hike, we came back one last time to our apartment and picked up our luggage. Luckily, we could just walk to the train station - as a matter of fact, you see many people just rolling suitcases in the streets of Florence.

Once we got there, we discovered that the Florence train station on Saturday is a very busy travel destination. Unfortunately, Greg and I hadn't pre-purchased the train ticket from Florence to Milan (we bought most of our other tickets ahead of time). There were no 2nd class tickets left to Milan, so we had to pay a lot more for 1st class tickets - oh, well, another lesson learned!

While we waited, we sat on our luggage for awhile and then made one last stop at the bathroom.

I do need to make a comment about this feature of European life. First of all, in all of our outings in France and Italy, we always found it extremely difficult to find a public restroom. I jokingly concluded that maybe Europeans don't need to go to the bathroom whenever they are out and about. Secondly, when you do find a restroom, you have to pay to use it - anywhere from 1 - 1.5 Euros!

Kevin and Kris took one last picture of us before we parted ways and we boarded our high speed train for Milan. We took the train to Milan (about 1.5 hours), then a bus to the airport (that was about 50 minutes away) and then a shuttle bus to our hotel room that is fairly close to the airport.

Tomorrow, we'll leave early in the morning for the airport and our trip back home and to reality.

We have had a wonderful time - all our planning seemed to work out well, and we loved the variety of experiences we had. We felt like we did a lot of things right (thanks for the advice that many of you shared) and we learned some other lessons that will help us on our next trip. The entire experience has truly been a dream come true!!

Hike Up to Piazza Michaelangelo

After breakfast, we decided to take one last hike up to the Piazza Michaelangelo, a site up above the city with a great view. Here are Kevin and Kris as we crossed the Arno River.

We then hiked up some very steep hills until we reached the piazza - the views were beautiful. You can see the wall that surrounded the city along with many of the monuments we have visited over the last few days.

The Duomo is so beautiful - we enjoyed our apartment with its lovely view of the Duomo right outside our windows. Here are a few last photos of this beautiful monument taken from the Piazza Michaelangelo.

Gelato Festival

After getting back from Siena, we had dinner at our apartment (cleaned out all our leftovers) and then headed out for our last night in Florence. There are two amazing things that have happened each night - first, that I would even consider going out at 9:30 pm. Those of you who know me know that I'm often falling asleep at that time! Somehow, with the time change, I've been able to stay up later - who knows what will happen when I get home!

The second amazing thing is the music and entertainment that is out on the streets each night. The big Gelato Festival had started and tonight when we went out, there was a drum core playing right in front of the Duomo. The crowd was having so much fun listening and dancing to the music!

We then traveled down to another piazza and there was another band playing.

After awhile, we decided to get our gelato samples - I tried pistachio and hazelnut - two flavors I hadn't sampled yet.

We had a lot of fun out with hundreds of other people enjoying the beautiful night with an almost full moon!

A Trip to Siena

Today we took a trip to Siena - a medieval town that is about 50 kilometers away from Florence.

We decided to try taking a bus there so we could see the back roads through Tuscany on our way there. We successfully located the bus station and were able to figure out what bus to take without too much difficulty.

One of the things that makes Siena so cool is that it is a walled city - you almost could believe that you are back in the middle ages. We spent time walking around and seeing some of the sites including another beautiful Duoma (Cathedral) and Piazza Del Campo with a clock tower that is the 2nd highest medieval tower in Italy.

One of the things about all the European towns we have visited so far (in both France and Italy) is the beautiful wooden doors. They are all unique and have so much character - Greg took a picture of me standing by a door in Siena.

We've had actually beautiful weather for the last 12 days after our rain the first days of our trip. However, today, there was a HUGE rain/thunderstorm in Siena. We got drenched (luckily, we had our umbrella even though we didn't bring any rain gear).

After the rain finally quit, we decided to get some gelato before the trip home. The displays of gelato (an Italian ice cream) are so unbelievably beautiful - I'm making it my mission to try as many flavors as possible before we leave. As a matter of fact, there is a Gelato Celebration in Florence starting today and running through Monday, so I'm sure I'll get a few other flavors under my belt, too, before we leave!

Shopping and the Uffizi Art Museum

Thursday afternoon was very full! We started with some time for shopping in the markets after we returned from the Boboli Gardens. We then headed over to the Piazza Della Signora - one of the main plazas in Florence.

Piazza Della Signora is filled with people from all over the world, statues, street musicians and mimes, gelato shops, horse carriages - it also borders on the Uffizi Art Museum. In this plaza, there is a copy of Michaelangelo's David. I'm almost done with my book on Michaelangelo and have learned so much about him and the history of art in Florence. It certainly has made my visit to Florence even more interesting.

We hung out watching the sights until our 4:45 reservation time at the Uffizi. What can I say about the Uffizi - well, I definitely decided that I would want to take an art history class before coming again. It was great, but by 7 pm, I think we all "hit the wall." Our feet and legs were so tired, we were hungry and we were glazing over with all the variations on Madonna and Child paintings.

We went back to our place and made another great dinner and sat under the Duomo before heading to bed!

Pitti Palazza and the Giardino di Boboli

On Thursday morning, we walked across the Arno River and went to the Pitti Palazza (Palace) and the Giardino di Boboli (Boboli Gardens). The Pitti Palazza houses several more art museums.

Because we already had a reservation for the Uffizi Art Museum for the afternoon, we spent most of our time walking in the gardens. There was a steep climb up the hills, but the view of the city was spectacular.

We had our lunch in the garden (we've been packing our own lunch each day - it's worked out really well!)

Dinner out with Drew and Erin

On Wednesday afternoon, Kris' daughter, Erin, and her boyfriend, Drew, joined us. They had gone to Dublin and then had hiked the Cinque Terre (separately) before meeting up with us in Florence. They will travel on with Kevin and Kris to Venice and then they will hike together for a few days in the Dolomites (the Italian Alps).

We decided to go out to dinner at a restaurant that was across from the Medici Chapel. While looking at the menu in the afternoon, we had talked to the manager, Franco, and he promised that he would take "good care of us!"

When we arrived at the restaurant, Franco took our menus away and proceeded to do the ordering for us - the meal was fantastic! We all ate way too much but had a great time!