Florence, Italy

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Florence Italy, what a city! Our planned 3 night stay soon turned into 5 after discovering a Tuscan wine tour in our hostel and planning a trip to Cinque Terre. The first day, Sunday, we found a cheap guesthouse to stay at that was a mix between a hostel and a motel with 4 beds in the room and designated shared bathrooms in the hallway for each room. This was the one place where the help did not know any English whatsoever but, after pretending to know what she was hammering away about and writing the total and deposit paid on a piece of paper, we were out of each others' way and got settled in. We spent the rest of the day getting completely lost in the city, going south when we thought it was north etc. and making no since out of the map. This, so far, is the only city that is incredibly hard to navigate. We eventually found the river we were looking for and the city center that rested beside it. The city center was where we spent much of our time when looking for food, drinks, or attractions. During the nighttime this city becomes beautifully lit with incredible architecture everywhere. Here is where we found the most stunning church we have seen yet (see photo). The next four nights were at a really cool and fun hostel called PLUS. It had a bar, club, restaurant, lounge, computer room, very helpful desk, tours, bikes, rooftop terrace, indoor pool, steam room and on and on. This place was pretty much alive all the time with other travelers like us from all over the world. We went back to the city center the first night here with our four Italian roommates and two Canadian girls we met in the club/bar after some happy hour shots in our hostel. It was a cool experience going out with such a diverse group of people, especially when not everyone knows English. At least drinking is universal! Our Italian friends stayed out and I walked Melissa and the girls back to our hostel, hours before the roommates returned quite hammered. The next morning these loud buddies of ours took off and we had nice quiet nights in our room as our two Korean girls in the other two beds hardly made a sound since the were constantly reading or writing. The following days leading up to our wine tour was nice and chill as we walked until our feet hurt around this wonderful city.

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