Grazie!

And the next day, we were off to Florence! Gosh I'm getting so distracted from writing this because I'm watching Hello Dolly. This is going to take me ages to write haha
Anyway, so we arrived at our adorable little hotel hidden away behind an arch, and on our way to see the Duomo, we stumbled across a highly recommended gelato place. And so we had gelato for lunch hahaha We shared a Kinder one, and it tasted just like a really rich chocolate. yum.

Sure was convenient having a gelato place three minutes from our hotel :)

What's interesting about our hotels was that they all used KEYS! Real keys! Not cards! So real.

Then we went to the Piazza del Republica, which was supposed to be the "coolest" piazza in Florence. Pretty cool with the big arch and the merry-go-round.

I love that Florence is so teensy so you can get to all the main spots in like 15 mins walk.

Then we went to the Duomo! That's Italian for "dome," but it actually refers to the entire church of the Basilica di Santa Maria. The dome is famous because it's the largest (I think)? And an architectural mystery.
Or something of that sort.

But pretty!

And then we went to the church of Santa Croce that held the tombs of MICHELANGELO!
GALILEO!
MACHIAVELLI!

AND DANTE!fkldfjkldsfldsl Laura and I are such nerds... but it was amazing seeing these tombs. We stared open-mouthed at each of these tombs. Can you imagine? Standing as close as possible to the real life DANTE ALIGHERI?!! AND MACHIAVELLI?! THE ENDS JUSTIFIES THE MEANS?! Shoot. It was amazing. AMAZING!

And then we continued on to the Arno river, and this is when I fell in love with Florence. It was partially the lines and lines of Vespas that did it (I really really really REALLY want one), but partially because of the beautiful river scene.

Breathtaking.

This is ponte Vecchio, which is the bridge famous for all of its jewelery shopping.

Florence was my favorite city that we went to because it is just so beautiful. We went to Piazza Michelangelo that oversaw the entire city.

You look to one side, and you see Florence.

And you look to the other side, and you see Tuscany!

A replica of "The David" and the Tuscan sunset :)

And as it got to dusk, it just got prettier!

:)

I could've stayed there and stared forever! But we finally got cold and went on an adventure for pizza.

Et voila! Vegetarian pizza. Yum :)

And of course, on the way back we did some shopping down the adorable little cobblestone streets of Florence, and we stumbled across this BEAUTIFUL wedding dress.

Look at that! So pretty! So fluffy! I'm going to wear that to my wedding to myself, wings and all!