Our Great European Christmas Vacation- Italy part 2

We woke up Sunday, December 29 to more church-bells ringing and a damp, but pretty morning in Venice!  After packing up and enjoying our last breakfast at Hotel Pantalon, we walked back to the train station to catch our noonish train to Florence.

Our bags were getting heavier with trinkets and I knew our hotel in Florence was a good 20-30 minute walk from the train station, so we opted for a taxi right away!  We were at the hotel in no time-across the Ponte Vecchio bridge.  Our room was ready, so we checked in and got settled a bit before heading out.

Check out that purple bathroom!

We grabbed a pizza to-go and strolled across the Ponte Vecchio bridge.  We snaked around to Piazza della Signoria where the original statue of The David used to live.  It was moved because it was damaged and a replica stands in it's place.

We wandered over to the Duomo-Florence's Cathedral and decided it was too late in the day and the lines were too long to make that tour worth it.  So, we snapped a few photos and moved on.  

We continued on to The Galleria dell'Accademia which houses Michelangelo's statue of The David.  I remember seeing The David the last time I was in Florence, but I didn't remember the waiting in line part until we were there and the line ended at the exact spot that I picked it up last time.  It was maybe an hour and a half wait and Kevin and I took turns in line.  While I was in line reading the guide book, he spent a bit of time looking at local leather shops searching for a wallet made in Italy.

We got some of the last tickets of the day (success) and spent a bit of time touring the gallery.  Kevin snuck an illegal shot of the statue...at this point, I guess we were both pros at the sneakiness!

When we left we circled back around to the Piazza della Signoria and enjoyed some gelato as we walked back to the hotel.

The gelato shop was named Queen Victoria!

After a long day, we didn't really feel like trekking out for dinner, but we didn't want to settle on the hotel restaurant, so we walked down the street and ended up at Cafe Bellini right across from the Pitti Palace.  I had the BEST vegetable soup of my entire life and Kevin enjoyed his pasta!

Then it was back to the hotel to watch the Italian version of MTV because it was the only thing in English and by this point we were missing our native language...then off to bed!



The 30th we woke up earlier than usual and after enjoying a Florentine morning from the hotel's rooftop patio, we made a beeline for the train station.

We had tickets to Pisa!  We grabbed some breakfast at the train station and then took off.  I'm glad I brought a book with me because our train stopped numerous times on the journey and we were delayed by about an hour when we finally arrived in Pisa...I didn't care because I was enjoying my book!

Our only order of business was to get to the leaning tower and ASAP!  We arrived and took the obligatory "hold up the leaning tower" pictures before getting tickets to climb to the top.

Unfortunately, our climbing time wasn't for another 2 or so hours, so we spent some time touring the Pisa Cathedral and having lunch at Pizzeria Toscana before getting in line for our climb.

Yummy Pizza!

The climb was crazy!  With the lean of the tower, it really threw my balance off!  I expected to climb the inside like a lighthouse, but the middle is completely open.  We got out on one landing and we walked around taking pictures.  I thought we were at the top, but we weren't and we had to go higher.  When we finally reached the top, we were able to see the bells that have been used over the years for the tower.  After-all, all of these towers are the bell towers for the Cathedrals.  After a bit at the top, we were able to climb on down.

Back to the train station and back to Florence we went.

An orange tree with fruit at the end of December!  Amazing!

It was a long day and the Duomo had closed early, so we got some gelato and went back to the hotel.  Eventually, Kevin went downstairs and ordered to-go from a local shop and I ate some leftovers from lunch before we crashed!



Day 3 in Florence-New Years Eve, we woke up with a plan: Climb the Duomo Bell Tower, Climb the Duomo Dome and get to the Uffizi Galleries before we had to leave.  We packed up our stuff and checked out of our room before walking over to the Duomo.  It was so early that we were able to go straight in and climb to the top of the Bell Tower right away.

It was a BEAUTIFUL morning!

When we came down, we went to get in line for the Dome, but it hadn't opened yet.  We ended up in another line because I thought we could get to the Dome from the inside of the Duomo, but that was wrong.  So, while we were inside the cathedral, we went ahead and snapped some photos!

We ended up back outside in a line that we waited in for two and a half hours before we made it inside to climb the Dome.  Fortunately, as we were waiting, we were able to have breakfast gelato and just enjoy the atmosphere.  (Breakfast gelato was just chocolate gelato that I ate early in the morning!)  Unfortunately, it was a two and a half hour wait and it was chilly out.  We had to do calisthenics to stay warm, but then our bodies just hurt from standing for over two hours.  There was a lot of stretching going on!

We finally made it in and climbed to the top.  The climb was crazy with narrow passageways and tiny staircases all the way to the top, but the view was amazing!

Sadly, all the waiting in line forced us to miss the Uffizi Galleries, so we'll have to go back one day so I can finally tour them.

When we got down, we grabbed lunch at a restaurant on the way back to our hotel, grabbed our bags and taxied it to the train station again so we could ride to our final destination: Rome.