We had a great time driving from the little town of Radda in the Chianti wine region up to Florence. We didn't have enough time in our trip to plan a couple of days to stay in Florence, but we still wanted to see it so we drove North to Florence, toured around for a couple of hours and then headed over to Cinque Terre where we would be staying for four nights. On the way from Florence to Cinque Terre we also stopped to take some photos of the leaning tower of Pisa in the town of Pisa. We covered a lot of ground in one day, but it was totally worth it!!
The drive was really windy and had lots of turns so it was hard not to get car sick, but it was so fun and very enjoyable. We saw some beautiful views on this drive!
When we finally arrived in Florence, we had a very interesting time parking outside the city. You can't drive in so you have to try to find a spot outside and pay the meter (which was also hard to figure out in Italian). We did end up finding a good spot and then made our way across the bridges over the Arno river into the beautiful city.
Florence was the only really crowded town that we visited when we were there, so it was shocking to us how many people were there! The lines to the museums were SO long and there were a million tours taking place all throughout the city.
The Duomo was truly amazing. The building had so much intricate detail and the dome was gorgeous!
For a snack I ordered a fresh hot waffle sandwich with Nutella. So yummy!
We did find the museum where the actual David statue lives, but the line was too long and we didn't have enough time on our parking meter to wait, so we just took photos in front of this smaller version outside a different museum in a beautiful piazza.
There were a lot of other beautiful fountains and statues in the piazza as well as horses!
Garrett got pooped on by a bird! Gross!
There were a lot of pretty veggie stands throughout the city.
Florence also has so many gorgeous shops! I wish I had more money and more time to shop in them!
We made the long walk back to our car and drove about an hour to Pisa. It was a little sketchy trying to get back to the freeway out of the city, but we made it!
Pisa was not an exciting town to visit. The only thing interesting about the town was the tower and the church behind the tower. There were a lot of people on the street trying to sell you purses and other junk and it was actually kind of scary!
You can see people in the photo below posing to look like they are holding up the tower.
The lawn in the middle was pristine!
We ate lunch at a restaurant with a pretty view of the tower. But our waiter was not Italian and was so horrible. The food wasn't much better.
If you want to see a really cool building, I would recommend stopping in for an hour or two. Just keep your visit short, get your fun photos and then head on to your next destination.
From Pisa we headed out to the hilltop sea towns of Cinque Terre!
