Florence:The Great!

We went to Florence for 5 days and it was amazing. It was always a lifelong dream of mine to see Florence and it's artistic and architectural treasures...And it did not disappoint! We also indulged in a lot of food and wine to boot! There was so much we saw and most we weren't allowed to take pictures of. But we saw the famous sculpture David, saw the Medici Chapels (the hidden Michelangelo drawings have been closed to the public for 3 years now...which I DID NOT know so I was quite bummed about that), ate a ton of food, climbed the Bell Tower of the Duomo (all 400-something steps), toured the Boboli Gardens, saw the Pitti Palace and the costume exhibit there, shopped, went to the Uffizi Gallery (amazing and amazing!), walked on the Ponte Vecchio, saw the tombs of Michelangelo and Gallileo, toured many amazing churches and saw many precious frescos, perused many museums and went to the nearby town of Fiesole and toured the Etruscan ruins there. My favorite parts of the trip were climbing the bell tower and seeing "The Birth of Venus" in person at the Uffizi. The views in Florence were so amazing. The Italian countryside is so breathtaking. I took a gazillion photos (well, some number close to that) and picked some stand-outs to put in a slide show so you can get a sample of some of our sights. See the slideshow here. The weather was quite gloomy or rainy a good portion of the time, but that didn't seem to stop us at all. This city is not one for the lazy person...if you are going there be sure to have lots of energy and be ready for little rest!