Florence was one of my favorite parts of my trip to Italy. Since there is so much to do there, our days were certainly packed. Upon arrival, we walked around our neighborhood which was not hard to figure out that it was the fashion district. The cobblestone roads and fancy window displays were an interesting juxtaposition and perfect home base for our time in Florence. Almost as soon as we put our bags down, we headed to the leather market to hopefully pick up some more bags. I was first struck by the quantity of vendors at Piazza San Lorenzo, and then by the quality of the leather goods they were selling. It was fun to haggle and all in all it was a successful trip for all of us who treated ourselves to a new leather bag. The next day was what we were really excited for, a tour of the Uffizi and Accademia Galleries. We hopped out of bed for our 8am tour and as soon as we could blink we were standing in front of world-famous sculpture, “David”. This was truly one of my highlights of the trip. This magnetism of this sculpture simply has to be experienced. Next stop was the considerably more crowded Uffizi where we saw “The Birth of Venus” and “La Primavera”, two more stunning glimpses of art history. On our way back from the tours, we meandered off of our path and got a bit lost. We knew that we were lost because we approached a big set of bleachers that we were certain we had never seen before. Our curiosity kicked in and we walked closer to see what was going on. Seeing no barriers, we meandered onto the bleachers and sat down in the front row. About ten minutes later horses and men in costumes flooded the Piazza and that’s when we realized it was some sort of jousting game. It was so cool to see this event in such a historical place because it seemed so authentic, like going back in time.
