Day 11 Florence

Day 11

Yesterday we arrived in Florence by bus. On the way here we stopped just outside of the city in Tuscany to visit a vineyard and have a wine tasting. With the tasting we were also given sandwiches, and probably the best bruschetta we have ever had. It was absolutely amazing. There were 6 different wines that we sampled, 2 white, and 4 red. I'm not a huge red fan but those were probably my favorite. After the tasting we explored the grounds and the bottling of the wine. Cindy assisted the workers by placing bottles on the belt before they were to be filled. It reminded me of Laverne and Shirely.

Once everyone had explored we got back on the bus and headed into the heart of Florence to our "hotel". The bus driver dropped us off about 1/2 mile away from the hotel and we had to carry all of our luggage to the hotel and then up 4 flights of stairs. I thoroughly enjoyed my backpack suitcase for the stairs and it worked just lovely. I helped Cindy with her bags and then we collapsed onto our beds to cool off for a bit. Our room is tiny and we are sharing with 2 other girls. The shower hardly has any normal pressure and takes a while to get warm so that was a treat too. After cooling off for a bit we headed into the downtown area to walk around with a few others and looked for Vivalis a well known gelato shop. We walked past Santa Croce, the Duomo, Uffisi gallery, and Ponte Vecchio a bridge that is over the river. We snuck into another hotel along the river got onto their rooftop deck and took some great shots of the surrounding city. Then we headed home and got ourselves settled for the next day.