It is now that I will continue on with the journey of Mom, Lynn and Tricia's trip to Florence....
On day three of the trip we decided to sleep in a little more than we have been and spend the full day exploring strictly Florence. We started off our day by visiting Piazza Santa Croce and touring the inside of Basilica di Santa Croce. Basilica di Santa Croce is the biggest Franciscan church in the world and also the burial site of some of the most influential and greatest Italians like Michelangelo and Galileo. The church is beautiful! Scattered around the church were all these areas that roped off where people (who we assumed are priest, there was a lack of English in the church) were buried. There were also the huge tombs of the great Italians. We explored the entire church and then headed off to get some lunch. We once again were graced with another amazing Italian restaurant where we all had pizza and wine (pretty much the theme of the visit). We hung out there for a while because it was an overcast day with scattered rain. From there we checked out the markets selling leather goods but soon our browsing was cut short because Tricia and I decided to meet up with my friends here and climb to the top of the Duomo.
I have been waiting to climb to the top of the Duomo and I am so happy I got to do it while Tricia was here. The climb was crazy! It was a steep, narrow, and long trek of 460 steps but 100% worth it! The first level of the Duomo you get to look out over is inside. It is a birds eye view of the entire church and a nice view of the fresco painting on the ceiling. You walk around in a circle, getting to view the church from every angel than you continue on up. The next look out is outside. It is here where you get to see the entire city of Florence, just like Piazza Michelangelo. Once again, we lucked out and reached the top during the sunset, so we got a beautiful sun set view of Florence. We walked back down and met back up with Mom and Lynn to get dinner.
We decided to check out a restaurant I heard many people rave about called Yellow Bar. The night before we had actual seen a huge line outside of there of people waiting to get tables. Yellow Bar wasn't open when we arrived so we walked around the area checking out some leather vendor stands until it opened. I understand the Yellow Bar craze now. It is so hard to judge because I have had so many amazing meals and pasta dishes in Florence but the homemade pasta I had at Yellow Bar easily could've been the best I have had so far! We also had a really good rose wine, which they put with ice in a cute little bag. We were stuffed after the meal but everyone was so happy once again that we had such an amazing meal! From there we tried to go out to a mixology bar called Mayday. Turns out for some reason it was closed so we went over to a bar called Kikuya which is known for their strong Dragoon beers which you drink with a lollipop. We were pretty much the only people in the bar but we had a blast! They played great music with a lot of throw back jams and we kept the round of beers going because we were told that with my card if I got up to 800 points I would win a free t-shirt. Well when we reached 800 points we were disappointed to find the bartender actually meant 2800....Either way hands down this was one of my most memorable nights out in Florence. There really is nothing better than spending quality time with the people you love, and a few beers never hurts to contribute to the fun ha ha ha. We spent a few hours at the bar then we went back to the hotel. From there Tricia and I changed and got ready to meet up with our friends at a club called Space.
We have heard the the Jersey Shore cast hung out at Space, we have no confirmed this completely but it is something that we have been told more than once. If you know the cast of Jersey Shore that should help you out a lot with the type of club space is. It's crazy in there!! and on a Saturday night it's packed! Also Space is in the middle of no where and a hole in the wall entrance, so Tricia and I spent a good 30 minutes trying to find it. Once we were there we had no idea what to do because none of my friends were there yet so we hung out and got a drink until finally they showed up. It was a fun night!! When it was time to go Tricia and I decided we needed to have McDonald's so we psyched ourselves up about what we were going to get and were so happy because it was on the street of the hotel. Turns out McDonald's was closed but we quickly decided it was okay because Lynn had nut granola bars! We barged into the hotel room and what we thought was a whisper asked Lynn where the nut bars were. Lynn sprang out of bed and I am laughing as I write this right now because she had the look on her face like are you two serious right now asking for nut bars! I then continued to my room and couldn't figure out how to open the door so in turn ended up waking my mom because I was making so much noise with the keys. Wooo 4am wake up calls for everyone!! The night ended on what I would say was a high note because I am still laughing about it.
The next morning aka about 4 hours later we all woke up for breakfast. Tricia and I were exhausted and I can only imagine that everyone was since we woke everyone up at 4am. But this would not hold us back from spending the day traveling to Lucca and Pisa. Lucca and Pisa are a quick train ride away and we heard that there was going to be less rain this day then the previous. When we got on the train we could see that it was raining and raining pretty consistently but we tried to stay optimistic. When we got to Lucca it was raining but not too badly. Lucca was also a ghost town on this rainy sunday and not many things were open but it was still cool walking around the walled city. Until it started to rain harder and harder. We hustled in and out of churches, trying to still explore what the city had to offer. We had a set plan to get on the train to go to Pisa at 3:30 so we didn't have too much time to kill in Lucca anyways. When we started to walk back to the train station thats when it really started to downpour. Extreme downpour. Each of us was sharing an umbrella and unprepared in proper footwear. We get to the train station soaked and find out the train doesn't leave for another hour. Cold and drenched we decided to run into a cafe to warm up. We got hot drinks and sandwiches and waited until it was time to leave for Pisa.
When we got to Pisa the weather had cleared up. Thank god no more rain! We went straight to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, because really thats one of the only main things to do in Pisa. My mom and I decided to climb to the top and Lynn and Tricia's feet were hurt from the rain and rubbing so they decided to just take pictures around the tower. This was my second time climbing to the top of the tower but the second time was even better than the first! For the third time we were lucky with a sunset view from the top, our timing with these climbs for the week was impeccable! Mom and I took some pictures and admired the view. We even saw Lynn and Tricia from up there! It was perfect!
We then climbed down and I made my mom take the typical Leaning of Tower pictures. We took a few more pictures then walked through the town to head back on the train.
When we arrived back in Florence we were hungry but didn't want to do too much more walking. I took everyone to a place close to my apartment, the train station and the hotel so the walk was easy. I had eaten at this particular restaurant before and had remembered it being good, and once again I'm going to toot my own horn for pulling off choosing another restaurant with an amazing meal. I think my mom had one of her favorite dinners of the week there too because she kept saying how good the pesto pasta was. This was my mom's last night in Florence so we couldn't end the night without getting one last gelato after dinner! Full to the brim after the gelato we made our way back to the hotel.
In the morning I got to enjoy one last breakfast with my mom and we even had time to spend walking around and checking out the leather markets one last time! We all made some purchases and then it was time for my mom to leave :( boooo. Despite my dad saying no tears, my mom and I both cried when she left hahah happens every single time!
It was the perfect 5 days! I cannot even express in anymore words how happy I was to have my mom come to visit me. She deserved a vacation and what better vacation than coming to Italy!!
On day three of the trip we decided to sleep in a little more than we have been and spend the full day exploring strictly Florence. We started off our day by visiting Piazza Santa Croce and touring the inside of Basilica di Santa Croce. Basilica di Santa Croce is the biggest Franciscan church in the world and also the burial site of some of the most influential and greatest Italians like Michelangelo and Galileo. The church is beautiful! Scattered around the church were all these areas that roped off where people (who we assumed are priest, there was a lack of English in the church) were buried. There were also the huge tombs of the great Italians. We explored the entire church and then headed off to get some lunch. We once again were graced with another amazing Italian restaurant where we all had pizza and wine (pretty much the theme of the visit). We hung out there for a while because it was an overcast day with scattered rain. From there we checked out the markets selling leather goods but soon our browsing was cut short because Tricia and I decided to meet up with my friends here and climb to the top of the Duomo.
I have been waiting to climb to the top of the Duomo and I am so happy I got to do it while Tricia was here. The climb was crazy! It was a steep, narrow, and long trek of 460 steps but 100% worth it! The first level of the Duomo you get to look out over is inside. It is a birds eye view of the entire church and a nice view of the fresco painting on the ceiling. You walk around in a circle, getting to view the church from every angel than you continue on up. The next look out is outside. It is here where you get to see the entire city of Florence, just like Piazza Michelangelo. Once again, we lucked out and reached the top during the sunset, so we got a beautiful sun set view of Florence. We walked back down and met back up with Mom and Lynn to get dinner.
We decided to check out a restaurant I heard many people rave about called Yellow Bar. The night before we had actual seen a huge line outside of there of people waiting to get tables. Yellow Bar wasn't open when we arrived so we walked around the area checking out some leather vendor stands until it opened. I understand the Yellow Bar craze now. It is so hard to judge because I have had so many amazing meals and pasta dishes in Florence but the homemade pasta I had at Yellow Bar easily could've been the best I have had so far! We also had a really good rose wine, which they put with ice in a cute little bag. We were stuffed after the meal but everyone was so happy once again that we had such an amazing meal! From there we tried to go out to a mixology bar called Mayday. Turns out for some reason it was closed so we went over to a bar called Kikuya which is known for their strong Dragoon beers which you drink with a lollipop. We were pretty much the only people in the bar but we had a blast! They played great music with a lot of throw back jams and we kept the round of beers going because we were told that with my card if I got up to 800 points I would win a free t-shirt. Well when we reached 800 points we were disappointed to find the bartender actually meant 2800....Either way hands down this was one of my most memorable nights out in Florence. There really is nothing better than spending quality time with the people you love, and a few beers never hurts to contribute to the fun ha ha ha. We spent a few hours at the bar then we went back to the hotel. From there Tricia and I changed and got ready to meet up with our friends at a club called Space.
We have heard the the Jersey Shore cast hung out at Space, we have no confirmed this completely but it is something that we have been told more than once. If you know the cast of Jersey Shore that should help you out a lot with the type of club space is. It's crazy in there!! and on a Saturday night it's packed! Also Space is in the middle of no where and a hole in the wall entrance, so Tricia and I spent a good 30 minutes trying to find it. Once we were there we had no idea what to do because none of my friends were there yet so we hung out and got a drink until finally they showed up. It was a fun night!! When it was time to go Tricia and I decided we needed to have McDonald's so we psyched ourselves up about what we were going to get and were so happy because it was on the street of the hotel. Turns out McDonald's was closed but we quickly decided it was okay because Lynn had nut granola bars! We barged into the hotel room and what we thought was a whisper asked Lynn where the nut bars were. Lynn sprang out of bed and I am laughing as I write this right now because she had the look on her face like are you two serious right now asking for nut bars! I then continued to my room and couldn't figure out how to open the door so in turn ended up waking my mom because I was making so much noise with the keys. Wooo 4am wake up calls for everyone!! The night ended on what I would say was a high note because I am still laughing about it.
The next morning aka about 4 hours later we all woke up for breakfast. Tricia and I were exhausted and I can only imagine that everyone was since we woke everyone up at 4am. But this would not hold us back from spending the day traveling to Lucca and Pisa. Lucca and Pisa are a quick train ride away and we heard that there was going to be less rain this day then the previous. When we got on the train we could see that it was raining and raining pretty consistently but we tried to stay optimistic. When we got to Lucca it was raining but not too badly. Lucca was also a ghost town on this rainy sunday and not many things were open but it was still cool walking around the walled city. Until it started to rain harder and harder. We hustled in and out of churches, trying to still explore what the city had to offer. We had a set plan to get on the train to go to Pisa at 3:30 so we didn't have too much time to kill in Lucca anyways. When we started to walk back to the train station thats when it really started to downpour. Extreme downpour. Each of us was sharing an umbrella and unprepared in proper footwear. We get to the train station soaked and find out the train doesn't leave for another hour. Cold and drenched we decided to run into a cafe to warm up. We got hot drinks and sandwiches and waited until it was time to leave for Pisa.
When we got to Pisa the weather had cleared up. Thank god no more rain! We went straight to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, because really thats one of the only main things to do in Pisa. My mom and I decided to climb to the top and Lynn and Tricia's feet were hurt from the rain and rubbing so they decided to just take pictures around the tower. This was my second time climbing to the top of the tower but the second time was even better than the first! For the third time we were lucky with a sunset view from the top, our timing with these climbs for the week was impeccable! Mom and I took some pictures and admired the view. We even saw Lynn and Tricia from up there! It was perfect!
We then climbed down and I made my mom take the typical Leaning of Tower pictures. We took a few more pictures then walked through the town to head back on the train.
When we arrived back in Florence we were hungry but didn't want to do too much more walking. I took everyone to a place close to my apartment, the train station and the hotel so the walk was easy. I had eaten at this particular restaurant before and had remembered it being good, and once again I'm going to toot my own horn for pulling off choosing another restaurant with an amazing meal. I think my mom had one of her favorite dinners of the week there too because she kept saying how good the pesto pasta was. This was my mom's last night in Florence so we couldn't end the night without getting one last gelato after dinner! Full to the brim after the gelato we made our way back to the hotel.
In the morning I got to enjoy one last breakfast with my mom and we even had time to spend walking around and checking out the leather markets one last time! We all made some purchases and then it was time for my mom to leave :( boooo. Despite my dad saying no tears, my mom and I both cried when she left hahah happens every single time!
It was the perfect 5 days! I cannot even express in anymore words how happy I was to have my mom come to visit me. She deserved a vacation and what better vacation than coming to Italy!!
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