Florence, Italy 6/7/16

Because our Europe trip was so amazing and it would be a HUGE blog post if I tried to do just one, so I'm breaking it down by locations.
We had such an awesome time and thinking about blogging about it just overwhelmed me because we saw SOOOOO MUCH, but I'm excited and I hope I don't forget anything!!!

Excited in the airport, we tried to pack as light as possible and I think we succeeded!

We flew out of Vegas June 6th through Delta. We booked our tickets with our skymiles (and some gifted skymiles from Mom and Dad Hauck, thanks again.) We were able to find a KILLER deal with the skymiles back in October and that's really what determined where we were going to go, along with all the amazing things Italy, Greece, and Turkey have to offer.

We got through security easily and were waiting anxiously at our gate for a good hour and a half. We were a little excited if you can't tell. Our flight took us to Minneapolis where we had a quick transfer to our next flight that took us to Rome.

First glimpse of Rome!

 Once landed in Rome we took a train to Rome Termini to catch our next train to Florence.

 Trains in Italy are all so different, this specific train was really nice with wifi.

 The Tuscany hillsides are amazing and I couldn't get enough, making the train rides breath taking.

 I fell in love with the terracotta roof houses with all the greenery everywhere.

 A normal countryside view.

 The vineyards and crops everywhere are just so beautiful.

 This was real life, I still can't believe it!

This was real life too.

And this too!

First stop FLORENCE, ITALY!!!

When we made it to Florence we walked to our Airbnb apartment. We purposely booked a place close to the train station to make our day trips easier!

Entering our little place.

Right off the entrance on the right side is the restroom.

Then on the left side is the little TV living room area.

 Walking straight forward is the kitchen dining area. 

 Looking back from the kitchen at the front door that securely locks!

 At the end of the kitchen is a doorway to the bedroom.

Then through the bedroom is another entrance into the TV living area, creating one big loop.
It was such a great place to stay with all the amenities you could need, they also gave us recommendations of things to do and places to eat!
After dropping our stuff off we headed out to explore all that Florence has to offer!!!

Florence is enchanting with it's maze streets, tall buildings (so you have no idea where you are,) artwork everywhere, and people going every which way. This was the first square we came to in our wandering of the streets, Piazza Di Santa Maria Novella.

 Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.

 We asked a girl to take a picture of us and she was from Long Island, then later on in our trip we ran into her again in Mykonos. Small world!

 I love exploring with this handsome man.

 Our first view of the Duomo, the excitement was building up haha.

All over Florence, and Italy in general, there are beautiful historical buildings and churches just like this. This was the view from the bank.

 First things first, we had to get some euro, so the first bank we came to we got what we thought we would need (which wasn't enough, of course haha.)

 The crazy thing about Florence is we were walking around so lost and then you turn one corner and you find what you were looking for but you couldn't see it before because all the buildings are so tall and close together you can only see ahead of you. It was magical and frustrating at the same time.

 Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore.
Amazing detail work, amazing material, amazing size, just plain amazing!

Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistery of Saint John) East Doors,  also known as Gates of Paradies by Lorenzo Ghiberti.

Each panel depicts scenes from the Old Testament.

 A close up of one of the panels, each one was absolutely beautiful.

 Baptistery.

 Doors to the Duomo, the detail work was insane!

 Stain glass windows from inside.

 Cathedral ceilings in the Duomo, hopefully you can get an idea of how tall it is by all the small people.

 The floors were beautiful made of all different marbles and other stones.

 The view looking up at the Duomo. I still can't believe this was hand painted, talk about neck pain.

 Beautiful.

 Those floors though...

 After the Duomo we walked around some more and saw beautiful buildings and colors like these.

This was the "reservation" line into Academia Museum, which we were in.

 Then this was the long line for those without reservations. Because we had a reservation we only waited in line for maybe 4 minutes.

 My master planner, he seriously killed it in the planning department.

 I gained a whole new appreciation and admiration for Michelangelo. These are the slave sculptures and the David sculpture, all done by Michelangelo.

 Michelangelo's Slave sculptures are amazing, the way that he captures the struggle and the pain of their lives trying to break free from the marble.

 "The Bearded Slave" is the most finished of the four slaves. the figure is almost free, only his hands and part of his arm are unfinished. The face is covered with a thick, curly beard and the thighs are bound by straps of cloth.

 Michelangelo's "David" before or after (subject of debate among scholars) he defeated Goliath. His right hand is larger than the other signifying that he was able to defeat Goliath with the help of the hand of God.

"The Pieta from Palestrina" depicts Christ's dead body being held by his mother Mary and another figure. Some believe that figure is Michelangelo, which would be the only sculpture he ever did of himself. He was a very spiritual person who dedicated his life to depicting beautiful and emotional moments in history.

 Jeff has a picture just like this back when he came as a Senior in high school, so of course we needed another picture.

 The detail, the size, the texture, everything about this statue is amazing. It's hard to believe that someone really sculpted this out of raw marble.

 I lucked out with the best husband ever, he is always serving me any way that he can, even if it's tying my shoe for me. I LOVE HIM!

Just trying to be like David and Jeff.

 So many beautiful sculptures.

 So many beautiful paintings.

 So many HUGE beautiful paintings.

  It was raining off and on and it was just so romantic walking the streets in the rain, when others were seeking cover, Jeff and I were having the best time just exploring in the rain.

 A pop your face in Mona Lisa portrait, of course we are going to pop our faces in.

I don't know about you but I think Jeff makes a better Mona Lisa than I do.

Giambologna and Pietro Tacca, Equestrian monument to Ferdinando I de' Medici in piazza Santissima Annuziata.

 First taste of Italy gelato and it was divine! MMMMM!

Palazzo Vecchio was this big 14th century fortress building with amazing statues!

Piazza della Signoria is such a cool square full of beautiful statues that can be viewed for free. As you can see in this one picture alone there are 14 statues with at least that many more not pictured.

I don't really know the story behind this huge turtle but it was beautiful, along with the two historical statues on each side.

The courtyard inside the fortress. Beautiful frescoes covering all the walls and ceilings.

This man was perched painting and I thought it was magical, this is something you see all over Italy.

After hearing of the terrorist attacks in France and Belgium we were really nervous to travel to Europe but decided that we can't live life in fear or we'll end up missing out on a lot of amazing things. So we stuck with our plans and to our pleasant surprise we found armed soldiers all over Italy at all the main attractions.

Jeff was our food mapper and he read lots and lots of Trip Advisor reviews, this restaurant was HIGHLY reviewed and after getting lost and having hangry Cam just about to snap we found this delicious restaurant and it was worth getting lost, hangry Cam turned into happy Cam!

It was challenging and exciting to order food in a foreign language, we had no idea what we were ordering but ended up with something really delicious.

All the sandwich dressings.

What we ended up with.

 I thought it was interesting how they hang their meet from the ceilings, I don't know if that's the secret but their meat was incredible.

My sandwich was amazing and I have no idea what this says but that was the sandwich I had and it was great!

After dinner walked to Ponte Vecchio where we soaked in the magic in the air.

The lighting was dreamy and everyone on the street had a happy countenance about them, it was so refreshing and enchanting.

The Ponte Vecchio or 'Old Bridge' joins the centre of city with the district of Oltrarno on the Arno river. It is one of the great icons of Florence and is one of the most famous bridges in the world.

Arno River view from the bridge.

My cute travel buddy.

I hate having pictures taken of me, as this picture shows. I always feel uncomfortable and feel like the person taking the picture (Jeff) is taking forever and trying to make me feel uncomfortable (haha weird I know.)

But after being lectured, "you're only in Florence once...I want a picture of you...etc." I gave in and this is what he got.

View of the bridge from the other side.

Then we stopped for another gelato right on the Arno river.

This is a replica statue of David at the Piazzale Michelangelo look out.

Piazzale Michelangelo overlooking the whole city at night.

Isn't it breathtaking?

It was really cool up on this overlook, there was a live musician playing and singing and lots of locals just hanging out on the stairs. It was really magical.

Well that's Florence in a nutshell. We loved the history, the art, the romance in the air, and getting lost and confused but loving everything we were seeing. This was the perfect place to start our adventure!

Watch our highlight video on YouTube!!!