Goodbye Rome, Hello Florence!

Rome was wonderful, but we were ready to continue our travels to Florence. Florence is beautiful. The city itself is a site. Brian and I are not really into art, so that part of the city was completely lost on us. We were staying right next to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. It is so beautiful that it was spared bombing in WWII & is thus the only medieval bridge left in Florence. Today it is lined with jewelry stores. At night when the stores are shut down their exteriors look like trunks. We hiked up to the Piazzale Michelangiolo & had some wonderful views of the city & Duomo. The famous Duomo of Florence was slightly disappointing after the grand churches in Rome.

Florence had the best food of all the cities we visited. The gelato in Florence is good, but the way they serve it makes it the best in Italy. They serve the gelato on warm waffles. The waffles are covered with a glaze and are so much better than our waffles in the US. It was my absolute favorite food in Italy. I don't even like waffles. Our first night we ate at a local restaurant & shared two local dishes. The first was crispelle alla fiorentia (crepes with spinach & riccotta cheese) & ossobuca di manza (beef w/ marrowbone). This was my favorite meal in Italy.