Florence and Pisa: The Grand Finale of Ashley's Italian Adventures

We wanted to squeeze in a mini trip while Ashley was here, so on Friday we headed over to Florence for a final "Italian Adventure" weekend.  Our hotel was not too far from the train station and in a great central location, so we checked our bags and headed out to make the most of our time there. 

We went straight to Accademia to see David.  FYI, ^ that is not the David statue, however Michelangelo should have considered pink and yellow paint.  In my opinion, it really transforms the piece.   

After taking in all the art our little eyes could handle, we were off in search of a doner kebab to satisfy our empty stomachs.  On our search for food, we walked through the leather market and spied some goods to go purchase later in our trip. 

Once we refuled, we did a big walk through of the city.  One of our stops was the St. Croce leather school.  (I realize leather goods is beginning to be a reoccuring theme in this trip.)  The products were beautiful and great quality, but just a little too expensive for our budget, so we stuck to the leather market.   

We were hoping we would get to see some leather goods being made, but we were only lucky enough to see some initials being stamped into a purse.  There were tons of old tools and stamps hanging behind work stations, so I guess that's better than nothing. 

This old Singer was in the leather school and it's so similar to the one my Memaw used to use!  It has the foot pump and everything.  It took all had to not go start pumping the pedal and just listen to it whir.  It's funny to be so far away from home but to have little things, like a sewing machine, remind me of some of my favorite memories from growing up. 

Our main walk ended back in front of the Duomo, just 5 minutes after it closed.  We were a little bummed that we had misread the signs and weren't able to go inside, but after taking in the facade we decided to head back to the hotel and get ready for a delicious dinner. 

For dinner, we decided to go to a place John Ralph and I have eaten at every time we've gone to Florence.  It has really good bistecca florentina and everything I've ordered there has been delicious.  We split an appetizer of panzanella, which is a salad of bread, tomatoes, onions, and basil, dressed with olive oil and vinegar.  For our pasta we got a ravioli, and for the main dish we split a bistecca.  The first three dishes were so amazing, we had to finish everything off with a chocolate torte. 

I think we did pretty good work! 

Saturday morning we woke up, enjoyed way too many pastries with nutella and honey for breakfast, and then made our way to the train station to head to Pisa.  The leaning tower is definitely leaning.  I had to take the obligatory "hold the tower up" picture, however with the exception of this one, I was a little upset with how much you couldn't tell it was leaning in the photos. 

Pisa was a pretty little town, but there wasn't too much to do there.  We walked around a bit, took a few pictures, and then headed off in search of sushi (you can only eat so much pizza and pasta).  It made for a quick little day trip, and after about three hours we were ready to get back to Florence. 

Ok, just one more picture.

It was so hot when we arrived back in Florence, we decided to hang out in the hotel until the sun went behind the buildings.  We took our time getting ready and then set out to enjoy our final dinner of the weekend.  Our starter was the always delicious proscuitto and melon.  I could eat that stuff for days. 

We split a pasta dish of fusilli pasta with a arugula and ricotta sauce.  It was very good, but we were both glad we split the dish.  It was just a little too much to have all to yourself. 

For the meat, we had rabbit stuffed with proscuitto, brie, apricots.  It did not disappoint, and at the end of the dinner we were delightfully full...but not too full to skip gelato later in the night for dessert! 

We decided to end our night by walking to Ponte Vecchio, a bridge on the edge of Florence.  On the way there, we passed by an outdoor concert and decided it would be the perfect spot to enjoy our gelato dessert.  It was a nice ending to a great weekend! 

On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped by the Duomo for one last photo op.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, asked us if we were sisters.  If only we had a dollar for every time we were asked that.  We even had one man we walked by randomly ask us if we were twins!  Nope, just two Italian bellas! 

I had to put this picture up too, because look at how TALL I look!!  I never look tall in pictures! 

Anyway, we had such a blast in Florence and I'm really glad we were able to work it into the week.  Sadly, the end of our Florence trip meant the end of Ashley's time in Italy.  I had so much fun showing her around our "home" in Italy.  Maybe these pictures will convince someone else to come visit? 

Ashley, start saving up and let's plan our trip to Paris!