Apologies for taking soooo long to get another post up. I know I haven’t finished logging my trip, so will do so before getting back to my normal antics. 

On the 10th day of the tour we left the beautiful city of Rome and made our way to Florence. Prior to going, I knew that Florence had had many great minds work there throughout history: Galileo, Michelango, DaVinci… I anticipated Florence to be a large metropolitis of culture and history. It was much smaller than I had envisioned. The statue of David is there after all so I thought it would be a happening place! 



We had some time to kill before our group activities. As we had a fancy dinner that evening, a few of us ladies headed to H&M to do some shopping. We thought it seemed small but then realized that it had 4 levels – it was a neat store! European H&M’s even carry their own makeup line! I had no idea that H&M made makeup. We don’t have that at home!

After shopping we were craving gelato. The prices were much higher than Rome. We picked the least expensive place we could find. We were pleasant surprised when the man behind the counter resembled Dave & James Franco. We should have taken a picture with him!

We met up with the group shortly there after for our group photo at the Piazza Della Signoria. Many people purchased the picture but I made the decision not to. After our photo, we went on a walking tour of Florence.



It was a short walking tour to see the main sites: Piazza Della Signiria, Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo. Florence is beautiful, it is even named after flowers, bug I had hoped for more. Cities like Paris have monuments for nearly every historical person and event, where as Florence was more reserved.



After the tour, myself and my two American friends made our way to the street markets. Italian leather covered journals, bags, scarfs… There were so many beautiful things. I made the decision not to buy anything because of th lack of free space in my suitcase.

As we made our way through the streets, I did make an exception and bought an Italian cookbook. 

While exploring we came across a Laduree – Paris’ renowned macaron bakery. I could not resist and bought a pistachio macaron. I had hoped that it would be the best macaron that I had ever had. To be completely honest, I think that the ones from Duchess bakery in Edmonton are on par with the European ones, if not better. Over all, at this point my favourite was the oversized one that I found in Amsterdam. It was beyond my expectations. 

That evening our group crossed the river and went up the hill to a monetary. Apparently they had filmed scenes from one of the Twilight movies there. Across the way from it, we wined and dined at a Tuscan dinner. There was a piano player, a singer and encouraged dancing. No, I did not get up to dance, but sat back and enjoyed my meal. 

The hotel where we stayed was not in the best condition but it made due for the night before we left for Switzerland.