“Everything about Florence seems to be colored with a mild violet, like a diluted wine.” Henry James

After a great night rest but still feeling a bit sore from the numerous kilometers walked the last several days, we checked out the the beautiful hotel we had called home base for the previous three nights. Hailed a taxi for the 10 min ride to the train station. Once again travel was a wonderful relaxing experience, always impressed with how efficient and prompt train transportation is in Europe. Roughly 1 hour and 30 minute train ride from Roma to Firenze. We arrived at 12:05. Our hotel sent a driver to meet us and chauffeured us to the nights lodging. We were upgraded to gorgeous room with a perfect view of the must see Ponte Vecchio bridge. A sixty five room hotel on the bank of the Arno River in middle of Florence, we were told that only fifteen rooms had guest. Just a example of the light amount tourists we are experiencing in cities and popular sights we have been at so far in Italia. They were so glad to see a US passport!

We skipped lunch and headed out to meet our tour guide in Firenze booked through “With Locals” an app. It is a great option if you want a local to show you around a city or destination. It will be only your party and the local giving you the tour. No worries about big tour groups. Its very personal and a great experience.

Book a tour of the Highlights and Hidden Gems of Florence with Zeynep Arzu. Check out this Withlocals profile https://www.withlocals.com/host/zeynep-arzugcd8ecd120

Our guide for the Highlights and Hidden Gems of Florence tour was Zeynep Arzu. We were her first tour for twenty twenty one! She wanted to celebrate with us! A great tour full of enthusiasm for her town of Florence. A town overflowing with culture, history and beautiful personality.

*Guido Aretino created music notes, see the tablet in his hand. He was from Firenze.*

*The man that discovered America and mapped the east coast. He was from Firenze.*

Part way through we stopped for a afternoon snack at the cutest little shop. They served an amazing antipasti tray. So Delicious, really liked the salami with fennel. Good food is even better with the shop owners that make a person feel so at home and welcome! (Prego)

Zeynep also gave us a tutorial on Gelato! There are three different versions. Artificial, semi artifical and the real deal. The artificial has more chemicals in it to keep it from melting and is piled high all pretty looking. Next is the half way good version. It would’t look quite as fancy more level in the trays. The real deal is all inclosed in canisters to preserve it and to keep the right temperature. Quite a a interesting guide to go by. We know what we are looking for now! Zeynep took us to a small place the locals went to and we had a taste of her version of the real gelato!

After our very interesting tour of Florence we headed back to hotel to clean up a bit before heading to dinner. Dinner was enjoyable had soe hilarious moments due the neighbors at the nearby table…Afterwards we took a short walk around town before headed to our room for a relaxing time on our balcony listening to Italian night life carry across the water and trying to catch on the blog which we falling way behind on…Buone Notte!

Firenze

Firenze, Pisa, Manarola

Napoli