Love in Florence

Le sigh... I loved Florence.  That city has more beauty, character and history than any other City I've been to, and the people there were warm and inviting.  

This is the view from our hotel room at Hotel Berchielli.  The hotel was cool, and we especially liked the bartender.  :)  He introduced me to my favorite Italian drink, the Aperol Spritz.

 The city was filled with sweet architectural details:

Here I am standing on the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge.  Our hotel was on the river less than a block away.

People put locks on the Ponte Vecchio bridge's fence to symbolize everlasting love.  

You're supposed to throw away the key.  Romantic, no?

                                                                                                       Gelato cones... droooool

And this friendly guy who smiled for the picture I snapped as we were walking by

Great picture of us at an outdoor cafe, having Proseco and fresh olives on our way to dinner

Dinner at Acqua al 2.  They had good Italian food and apparently the place is a hit among locals.  We met a couple there who is from Michigan.  It was nice chatting with them about how they met, their kids, etc.  

Whoever decided to display the restaurant's plates right behind our heads did not think through that decision.  

"Owww, you're pulling my hair!"

Heh.  Zach trying to drink out of this guy's wine ...thingy

Beautiful art at the Uffizi museum

The Duomo.  A gorgeous church in Florence.  You can climb to the top of the tower or to the top of the dome and get a breathtaking view of Florence.  

Zach, looking dapper as ever.

After spending what seemed like all day in the Uffizi museum, we hit up this rooftop cafe to rest our feet and have an aperitif   We asked a guy to take our picture and he had some fun with it, taking about 10 pictures of us from all angles and cracking us up in the process.  

There were pretty sights everywhere, like this bike with flowers in its basket.

The dome of the Duomo, I think.

And these silver foxes.

There were beautiful, old churches everywhere we went.  At a certain point it became desensitizing.  

"Oh look, another old church.  Cool."

Classic shot of Zach and Florence

Not going to lie, visiting a Celine store for the first time was one of the highlights of the trip, for me.  Zach was kind enough to humor me while I walked around feeling all the material like a blind person.

I've got hundreds more pictures, these are just a tiny taste.  Venice and Rome pictures coming soon!