This was my first trip semi-alone. Well, alone for the first half of the first day. I booked my train ticket extra early so I could pack in as much as possibile because I was only staying one night. I was a bit nervous about traveling by myself since I had never done that before. But I was so excited once I got there! So excited that I accidentally texted my mom telling her how excited I was at 2:30 am Texas time! I also told her I was alone, so she had a hard time going back to sleep. Sorry mom!
I started out with a bus tour that just went around the city. It was only about an hour long, but gave me some context of the history behind Florence. It is definitely not a design oriented city like Milan is, rather it has a lot of art historical hubs. The Uffizi Gallery is located in Florence, and houses many of the great works of art of Europe.
One thing I noticed right away, was how small Florence is! It’s a tiny city! I could walk from the train station to the Duomo in about 10 min! And that is like wring across the city. That would not be doable in Milan for sure. But, I loved that aspect of Florence. It made seeing a lot of sights in one day easy and not stressful. I went to the leather market at Piazza San Lorenzo, which was magnificent! That was probably the most design-related area of the city. There were hundreds of leather bags, jackets, shoes and belts down this one street. I felt like it never ended! Of course, I had to buy a bag, I even haggled a bit!
After my fun half day of wandering around the city by myself I meet up with some of the girls. We walked around the city some more until we decided to break off into smaller groups and do our own exploring. Florence has a much different feeling than any of the other Italian cities that I have been to this month. It has a certain charm that I didn’t feel in Rome and don’t feel in Milan. Maybe it was the size, or maybe it was because it is mainly a tourist city, filled to the brim with museums. I love Milan, but Florence had a different, almost magical feel to it. It didn’t have the hustle and bustle feel that Milan and Rome had.
I have already decided that I have to go back to Florence. I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to, but that is okay, because it gives me an excuse to come back!
