Wednesday morning, we woke up early to drive into Florence to spend a day in the city. Getting into the city was a little difficult - we had to fight with aggressive Italian drivers at rush hour in the morning. In the end, we made it downtown in one piece.

We walked into town, and towards the Duomo. The Duomo is a beautifully decorated church - I have seen countless churches on my European travels, but this one takes the cake. The building was enormous, and every square inch was decorated with gold, sculptures and 3D facades. We wanted to see the inside to see if it compared to the outside - but unfortunately due to the size of the line and time constraints (we had a tour booked in the afternoon), we didn't have the time. I guess I have a reason to come back to Florence now.

There was a lot more architecture to enjoy in Florence. There was a place with a beautiful fountain and sculptures and other nice churches around town. One attraction that Jamie was looking forward to seeing was the Vechio Bridge - a little covered bridge with an intriguing story. In WWII, Hitler destroyed all the bridges in Florence, but for some reason he saved this little covered bridge - and no one knows exactly why.

After lunch, we joined a bus tour of the Chianti area of Tuscany. We saw beautiful Tuscan views of rolling green hills, vineyards, and cypress trees along the way to a couple wine tastings in local wineries. It was a lovely afternoon. I really like the Tuscan region - it looks exactly how I always imagined it; romantic and majestic. I'd love to see more of it - even more reasons to come back!