Ciao Firenze! I can't believe we are already leaving Florence this morning to spend the night in Rome.

Florence was amazing! It was a little grey and rainy for the first part of the day, but that's nothing compared to what we see everyday in Ireland. We began our walk to the David, the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio. We were about fifteen minutes into our walk and it really started pouring, you would think "oh that's so awful," but it was actually perfect because it drove us into the most amazing mom and pop pizza place that had all Italian customers. We got prosciutto pizza and a glass of wine for 7 Euro, it doesn't get better! By the time we each finished our whole pizzas the rain had let up a little.

We continued walking and my best memory so far was made. We didn't have umbrellas and these two old Italian grandmothers who were walking behind us caught up and were speaking in Italian and broken English to us and said "oh come under the umbrellas!" They were so sweet, we began chatting with them and they asked where we were heading, of course we had directions and maps so we knew the general way to get to the David, but they said "oh we are heading that way to the theatre walk with us." We walked arm and arm with these sweet old ladies, even making us hold the umbrellas so we wouldn't get the drops (they were a lot shorter than us)! They were very funny and the typical Italian grandmothers everyone thinks of and loves. We even walked past the Four Seasons and one of them said "you come back with husband someday" to all of us, we have never laughed so hard as we did all afternoon talking about these women. We parted ways after about a block or so of walking with them. They pointed us in the right direction and they continued on to their routine Sundays of going to the theatre.

We waited in line about 45 minutes to see the David. Fortunately there was a bakery were we got canolis and lattes as we waiting in the rain. I almost got thrown out of the David for peaking through a door with a two inch crack to see the David. I got a perfect view! Then one of the museum employees SWUNG the door open and started yelling at me in Italian. I mean how do you expect me not to look through that crack with the most famous statue in the world on the other end? I think that's just poor museum planning, at least put a curtain up if you don't want anyone to look! AND since he swung the door WIDE open, I got an even better view of the David for free. I think I was the winner in this situation don't you?

By the time we got out of the David the weather totally cleared. We then walked a few steps to the Duomo, which was so beautiful. Then we went to go Ponte Vecchio and took it all in. We walked up and down the street across the bridge and into all of the shops. We found a perfect place for pasta. Did I mention that somewhere in between we got gelato too?

Walking back from dinner we watched the sunset over the Ponte Vecchio, it was a perfect cotton candy pink and the water was so calm. We even signed the bridge. The night was so clear that we could see all the buildings reflections in the water- Bella Bella!

On our walk back over the bridge we stopped at a vender who handmade us all wire name plate necklaces as a little memento of our perfect day in Florence.

We walked through the square with the most famous David replica and a few other statues that were all lit up. The Duomo was also beautiful at night as well.

We stopped and got another canoli mid walk and couldn't stop talking about our day, the food, and the grandmothers we met.

Ciao Firenze!
Al