We took a bus from Siena to Florence, and a taxi to our hotel, Loggiato dei Serviti--located in the historic Piazza SS Anunziata. Our hotel was beautiful. It used to be a monastary, but it's been renovated and it was just wonderful. Our room was spacious with very high ceilings and a 4 poster bed-DAMASK! Just like Marie Antoinette's bed, if you ask me.
They even had drawings of horses on the wall. Perfect!
We decided to see if there were any English movies playing at the movie theater, so we took a walk. In five minutes, we were at the Duomo. In 10 we were at the Uffizi Gallery, and on to the Piazza Repubblica. I lovvvved how close all the amazing sights were.
We didn't find any movies not in Italian, so we just window shopped on our way to our Rick Steves-approved meal spot--Il Pirata. Check it out--purple, so trendy. I love it!
The food was a deli-style buffet with wine and beer and it was very inexpensive.
We headed back to the hotel, and our nice bellboy brought us champagne and roses for our honeymoon. Totally unexpected and so sweet!
The next day we woke up late because I'd begun feeling sick with a sore throat, but we still caught the hotel's nice breakfast. We went out to explore a bit and go shopping. Here's the Duomo!
We found a creperie with tons of Nutella. yummm
And Homer Simpson's Duff beer. :-)
Walked through the Uffizi gallery on our way to the Arno River
My favorite statue in the piazza :-) Love the hair!
The Arno river
We shopped at H&M, Zara and goldenpointe and visited Ponte Vecchio. I got a new outfit and wore it to dinner with our friends Stine and Massimo. They live in Fiesole, and we stayed with them the last time we visited. The restaurant was Ristorante la Giostra. It was in an old building and the tiny spot has tons of character. Lots of photos of the owner and famous celebrities like Brad Pitt, Christy Turlington and John Travolta on one of the walls.
Massimo and Stine.
We had really good wine in a carafe!
Sampler of delicious Tuscan food
my meal- seafood spaghetti
the interesting owner. Look at that jewelry!
tirimasu of course
Zach's dessert.
Our time with Stine and Massimo was one of the highlights of our honeymoon. We love and miss them!
The next day, I took some photo of the piazza just outside our hotel.
totally in love with the hair on this horse!
We went inside the Uffizi--something I hadn't gotten to do last time we came. It was awesome!
Fleur de lis--the symbol of Florence. This is Zach's favorite city in the world. We have decorated our house in fleur de lis because it's connected to both France(my fave) and Florence.
I've decided I love sculptures the most. Especially this one. I loved the musculature.
Another photos of hair on a sculpture. My hair matched so I posed with him. :-)
Fleur de lis
Back in the piazza, I found an Italian carriage horse having lunch.
hii!
We were a bit under the weather, but we went to the Duomo and climbed the dome's 463 steps.
It was a long way up and Zach's not a fan of heights. But the view was SO worth it.
We locked our final lock at the top, overlooking Fiesole.
Don't look down!
Zach got brave and videotaped the entire walk around the top. In the wind!
Here's where i got scared--going DOWN. eek!
Inside the Duomo, we marveled at the ceiling.
Thoroughly exhausted from all the travel and sore throats, we dragged ourselves to a trattoria in the shadows of the Duomo and had some pasta. It was student-centric, but there were lots of American students so they had some interesting touches.
We took a nap, went souvenir shopping for family and ended up back at the same place for our last Italian meal. I had veggie soup. :-)
It was almost fitting, that they aired Walker, Texas Ranger on the tv in the restaurant the last night we were in Italy. :-)
We woke up at 4 am and took a taxi to the airport for our journey home. Here Zach is watching the video demonstrating chair exercises... it was disturbing. Love him though :-)
We arrived home and here is what I saw! That's my work!
Our honeymoon was wonderful. We had a great time and it was a memorable way to begin our marriage. Thanks for sticking through the recap! It's been really neat re-living it through the photos and I hope you enjoyed them. Maybe you will get some tips for a future trip to Europe!
