Basilica di San Miniato al Monte Florence

Today I spent the day in Florence. Although nothing really special happened today, it was the first day I felt comfortable around the city and truly can say I was able to take a deep breath of cool air and enjoy all that surrounded me.

After our morning classes we had a guest lecturer at 3 p.m. The woman who came and spoke to us holds the …

Florence is right up there at the top of our "favorite places" list. Such a beautiful city, with a surprise around every corner. Our favorite way of getting around the city was to walk. You see more that way!
We were always pleased with the many meals we had at local cafes and restaurants hidden down the narrow streets.

The Westin is …

This morning I woke up with a sore throat. It began during my visit to the Uffuzi and, considering they were regulating the air, I had just assumed it was a dry throat; this morning I realised otherwise as I was hoarse and it felt infected. Seems a mundane point to make in a travel blog but I do so intentionally because it actually leads to a …

Our day started early for us as the alarm went off at 7:30. We took the train from Rome to Florence today and got just a glimpse of the beautiful country side. After arriving in Florence we had a quick bite to eat and then headed for Galleria dell'Accademia to see the David. Standing over 5 meters high and carved out of marble this is an incredible …

We left Rome for Florence today. We arrived at Florence at about 11.17am. The B&B we booked was near train station and so we no problems dragging our luggages from the station to the B&B. I had initially wanted to stay near the train station because I wanted to go to Space, the Prada outlet. However, realizing that 1.5 days isn't enough to …

When Carlota said it would suddenly become cool, she wasn't kidding. Windchill, drizzling... the sun was warm enough but not enough to call it hot anymore and the shade definitely felt like fall. I guess I'm done tanning ;P

So today we walked to the south part of Firenze, past the many shops, past the old city walls, and into quieter …

One last day of touring Florence - one more day for the city to prove to us that there is a good reason why we should like it here more than anywhere else. With so many tourists EVERYWHERE and so many sites costing us so much money, neither Mario nor I have been completely sold on the idea of Florence as the city to see in Italy. Our current theory …

... the trip in the Piazza di Santa Croce.  We then hiked up a mountain...literally, probably over 400 steps....to the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte.  From there we could see all of Florence, which totally made it worth the aching legs.  We ...

... nbsp; Around 3pm, we went with another host mother and her home stay to the Piazza di Michelangelo and to the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte.  It was unfortunately raining a little bit, but the view was still great.  It's very picturesque ...