The day started off a little early with our transfer to the Paris airport at 6:30am. And then it got a little stressful as we could not find our flight to Florence on any of the monitors in the airport. We found a couple of very nice Air France workers, who informed us that we were in the wrong terminal. Awesome. They told us where to go to get on a shuttle, and thankfully it wasn't too far of a drive to the correct terminal. We arrived really early (thank you to our travel agent for booking our transfer so early) and had a nice long wait until our flight. We were in a smaller terminal for smaller, regional planes and they had everyone wait in one giant area until 20 minutes before the flights at which time they assigned a gate and boarded everyone. It was quite nice actually.
We arrived in Florence and found our driver without any problems. He was a cute little old Italian man, who was very nice. He showed us where the main train station was as we passed it and thankfully it was only 2 blocks from our hotel as we knew we would be back there in just two days to catch our train to rome (I am writing this from our train to Rome). We arrived at an amazing hotel and were greeted by very friendly staff who showed us to our room and then disappeared as quickly as they showed up. Our room was more of a suite with a long hallway once you walked in the door, a sitting room with 2 wardrobes, a big room with a massive king sized bed and a nice sized bathroom (with both a shower head taller than both of us (not the case in Paris) and a full glass shower door). We were thrilled. Oh and the bed was by far the softest and largest so far. Trent mentioned every time we were in the hotel that this was his favorite and he didn't want to leave. Me either. It was very nice.
We headed out to explore and find the meeting place for our private walking tour later that night. Oh and to find food (we were starving at that point). We found a nice piazza near the hotel and there were a couple of nice priced hotels so we picked one and went it. Oh my goodness was it amazing. We had bruschetta that was to die for and then I had gnocchi and Trent had risotto. Both were beyond words. Mine had these large chunks of fresh mozzarella in them. I had no idea what fresh mozzarella tasted like. So amazing. After lunch we found a gelato place and walked around a bit. We found our meeting place for our tour and decided to just enjoy the scenery. Trent had an Italian beer and after a couple of hours we had another gelato.
Our guide showed up and was about our age and from MA. She married a Florentine and was doing her PhD in something to do with ancient things. Neither of us was entirely sure what she was studying, but she knew a lot about Florence and was a great guide. We walked around with her for 2 hours seeing the major sights in Florence and getting all of the history. She then recommended a few places for dinner so we went off in search of those. We walked down the river banks and were amazed at how quaint the city was. Dinner was amazing (it was a little off the tourist track, but with Kristin & Dan's italian phrase book we were able to decipher the menu on our own without any trouble). Dinner was very good and as it was late we strolled back to our room for the night.
Overall, we had no idea we would be this impressed with Italy. Everything is so different from Paris and London, but still beautiful and impressive in its own right. I can't explain it, but Florence has this really cozy feel to it and the people are all so nice. And the food makes me think of my Mom and Nona's cooking. Oh the food. :)
Love you all!
K&T
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