NEXT STOP: FLORENCE

FLORENCE

Florence was by far my favorite stop on our Italy tour.  I can't really put an finger on exactly why, but I know for sure that I didn't want to leave.  Our first day in Florence we actually had a lot of free time to explore, shop and sightsee.   Florence is known for it's leather goods and I was determined to find a fabulous leather wallet to take away with me. Our Italian tour guide was buddy-buddy with a couple of the leather shop owners so he took us to a couple of different places. This was the "hunting" part of the day, as my Mother would call it:) We stopped and had some lunch....Caprese Salad AGAIN...and then I decided which wallet I wanted to so I went back with Tory to "gather". A huge part of Italian retail is bargaining with the shop owners. It's not something I am totally comfortable doing so I was pretty proud of myself when I talked him down from 120 euros to 60 euros...with FREE branding of my initials included. How do you all think I did?!?!?!

Our second day in Florence we actually spent in Pisa, Italy seeing.....you guessed it...the Leaning Tour of Pisa...

 We had reservations to climb to the top so we set out in two groups....Group #1- the players....Group #2- the staff.  Believe me, at this point in the trip, nobody was dissapointed with the grouping. HA! The trip to the top was long and narrow.  We had a couple of people in our group who shall remain nameless,  Tory and Steve, who are afraid of heights so they weren't too thrilled with the activity, but nonetheless, they were troopers and everybody made it to the top safe and sound. 

Me and Bonnie at the top. Please ignore the sunnnies.  I forgot my Tory B's at the hotel and had to barter with a guy to buy these gems.  3 euro so don't judge.

The girls "waving the wheat" at the top of the tower. Rock Chalk!

Another pic of the girlies at the top of the tour.

We had a game that night so, after a quick pre-game meal, we hoped on our bus and headed to the arena.  I use the term "arena" loosly. It didn't have air conditioning, functioning toilettes, or seats with backs on them, but it DID have a basketball court.....so we gave the Italians the benefit of the doubt on this one. On a positive note, my cute officials from the first game were back.  I even got a smile from one of them. Probably because I was totally BUTCHERING their language trying to get them to call a travel.  Apparently the Italians get an extra step when attacking the basket.  Sorry for the mini rant.....I felt like the officiating was a leetle one sided:). It didn't really matter though because we won pretty easily. Again, happy coaches = happy trip.

That night, our last night in Florence, we had a casual staff dinner complete with drinks and dessert. It was probably one of my most favorite memories of the trip.  This is where I had my first experience with heaven in a cup gellato, the Italian version of ice cream. Thank goodness they don't sell this "crack in a cup"  in the U.S. because I would have a major problem. HA!  Walking back to the hotel, the city looked like something out of a movie.  The girls and I tried to find the Jersey Shore house, but our Italian guide refused to help because I guess they didn't put their best foot forward when they filmed there. Imagine that. Silly Americans. HA!

Florence Recap:

Food: Better than Rome. Gellato is heaven.

Shopping: Awesome.  The leather was beautiful and suprisingly affordable. They also had a million outdoor markets where you could pick up cheap, little souviners.

Hotel: This hotel had the best location out of all of them. It was right there in the middle of the city. It was older and the elevators were tiny, but the hairdryer was functioning, so I considered it Five Star. HA!

Next Stop: Venice! 

Smooches,

THE DARLING DIVA