The journey of a great view begins with 463 steps

Today is my last day in Florence. I packed up at the hotel and jumped on a bus. First, I dropped my bag at train station – they have a bag drop where you can check a bag for a few euro over a certain time period. It was really nice to not have to go back to the hotel after spending the day around Florence. First, I went to check out the Ponte Vecchio during the day. I walked along the Fiume Arno seeing a new area of Florence that I hadn’t toured yet. I had pre-purchased a ticket for the Uffizi Art Gallery. I was able to see works by Giotto, Botticelli (The Birth of Venus), da Vinci, Raphael, and Rembrandt. I started to take pictures of all the Virgin Mary and Child paintings and I ran out of space on my phone… okay maybe that is dramatization but seriously there were probably 1000 paintings of mother and child. I had to speed through this space because I had an appointment to climb the Duomo. 

Uffizi Art on left and Ponte Vecchio on Right

A few of the Virgin Mary and Child paintings

I am not sure why I keep doing this to myself but it was another climb up another old building! I had to wait in line for a bit in order to be admitted into the dome. Like the other climbs, you get to see the inside of the dome and then climb up to the top of the dome. The view at the top was incredible… you could see for miles and all of Florence was in view.

After the climb up and down, I headed to find some lunch. It was cute sandwich shop down one of the small lanes. The neat thing about Florence is that you can walk around and be lost but easily find yourself. I was thankful for a map in hand but also loved the since of exploration. Of course not only did I find my way around, but I found something cool and refreshing – a strawberry, lemonade Italian Ice.

Next, I went to the Museum of the Duomo, which was really interesting and provided some great insights into the dome include a neat close up of the stained glass windows, a small replica of the dome, and lots of the neat sculptures. When you go to the very top of the museum, you can see a great view of the Duomo and get a chance to take some pictures.

Now it was time to finalize my time in Florence. I walked around the city some more seeing a few more churches, checking out some of the vendors, seeing all the different types of gelato, and counting the countless number of pizzerias. I purchased a few leather items for friends back in the states that could easily fit in my bag. After exploring, I headed back to the train station to get my bag and grab a quick snack. On the train ride to Venice, I sat across from a young couple.

When I arrived in Venice, I realized that I was in Venice proper and could easily meet up with my family who was staying in the city. I was originally intending to stay at an AirBnB that I had reserved. I kept in touch with the host to let him know that I would either be really late or I would not be showing up. I jumped on a water bus (see some crazy art I saw on the water bus down below) to meet back up with Susan and Sierra and this time my cousin Kathy and her daughter Hannah were with them.

We then met up with Susan’s brother
Sammy Graham and his family – Stephanie (wife), McKenzie (oldest daughter), and Savannah (youngest daughter) along with Stephanie’s cousin Shelby. We had dinner at Sammy’s hotel – it was great! We had a wonderful meal and then ordered desserts. Hannah loves chocolate and asked if they had any options. The waiter said that he would see what he could do. From this we found out that it was our waitress Victoria’s birthday because they brought Hannah a piece of the cake that they brought in for Victoria. So what did we do… we brought Victoria out so we could sing Happy Birthday to her (keep in mind we were eating out on the patio along the piazza) so all could hear! I am pretty sure she was embarrassed but let us do it anyways! She then brought out a bottle of Prosecco for all to share along with her. It was such a special moment and really kicked off the family part of the trip nicely.

After a long day, I decided to go stay with the family (Susan, Sierra, Kathy, and Hannah) over at the Hilton. We took a water shuttle over and the family sneaked me in! They had a great hotel room and it was a beautiful site to look over at Venice. The waves were crashing over the wall and the wind was really picking up. Sierra agreed to share the sofa bed with me. We opened it up and realized that it wasn’t exactly perfect… it may have sloped down in one corner. Sierra and I managed to sleep through the night but I am not quite sure how!