Italy 2017

What's better than Italy? Italy on a girl's trip with your mom. The picture above is in Rome, but first we visited Florence.

My cousin Tiffany texted one random day and asked if Mom and I would want to travel with her and her mom, Aunt Evelyn. I was like sure! Why not? Then she said she wanted to go to Italy. In November. Okay, I was game for that. And, boy, I am glad I said yes. It will go down as probably my favorite trip ever. What is better than hanging with girls who just want to eat pasta, drink wine, and see a few sites? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

We saw the Duomo. I love how it towers above everything. You can see it for blocks away.

Sites around town. Piazza del Signoria and Piazza della Republica

One late afternoon we trekked to Boboli Gardens. It was straight uphill for a very long time.

The sisters couldn't stop giggling.

Cousin Tiffany trying to get the perfect shot. Which she did every single time.

It was gorgeous. We had worked up quite an appetite, only to realize getting out of the park area was going to take forever. We got locked in. I honestly don't remember how we got out, but once we did, desperate to find food, we settled for our worst meal of the trip.

Another day, we visited the Piazza del Mercato Centrale. It was so interesting seeing the food vendors. Upstairs was a huge food hall. We could have spent many hours here.

Pesto gnocchi for the win.

Another day we ventured on a one day tour of Tuscany. We opted for a small group tour, and it was perfect. We visited a chianti winery, the walled city of San Gimignano, and ended with a stop in Siena.

View from the winery.

Tiffany at work in the olive trees. (I don't think this was the winery, but was part of this day.)

San Gimignano was beautiful.

Beautiful

Piazza della Cisterna is surrounded by medieval houses.

Our final stop for the day in Siena didn't allow for much time, but we did see the Piazza del Campo. This is where a famous horse race occurs each year. It is also known as one of Europe's most beautiful medieval squares.

Torre del Mangia

Now after this long day, with lunch included, we arrived back to Florence tired and hungry. As we walked from the train station, we just happened up on this.

It's a lady in the window cleaning up after she has made the pasta! We could not resist. Picture courtesy of Tiffany Kokal.

Our experience that night at Osteria Pastella is why we made a point to go back this past summer.

Culinary perfection.

Florence was full of everything we wanted out of our first ever stop to an Italian town. I can't imagine going back to Italy and not always visiting Florence. It was small and large all at once. You can get lost in the side streets and travel quickly to a whole other place. It's perfection.

Since we did the Airbnb route, we always ventured out for breakfast at my insistence. I mean who doesn't want a pastry every day?

I can't wait to plan my next visit to Firenze. I will post about our second half of our trip to Italy next. We spent four days in Rome before heading home.