"More of Everything! Shoes for Everyone!"

More of everything seemed to be the theme of the week with my mom and aunt, and if you've seen Sex and the City 2, then you recognize the "shoes for everyone!" reference :) More food, more walking, more museums, did I mention more food? We ate our way through Florence. Eat, Pray, Love turned into Eat, Walk, Eat. But anyways, we had a BLAST the whole time, so no complaints!

(Side note, pictures from my aunt's camera are to come soon, my camera has decided to retire in Assisi.)

I took my mom and aunt to my favorite places around the city (there is a bird cooing in my window right now, how cute!) on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Monday we were in Assisi as I wrote earlier, and Thursday we took a day trip to Venice. They loved shopping through the San Lorenzo leather market where oddly we ended up with scarves every time, not leather goods... but we also visited the church of San Lorenzo (the church of the Medici Family) and saw both the Old Sacristy and New Sacristy chapels (New done by Michelangelo). I gave them a guided tour of the Uffizi Gallery and Acedamia (where the David is located) which took up the better part of Tuesday, but Wednesday was our favorite. I took them to Pitti Palace first thing in the morning to see the royal apartments and Boboli gardens. The apartments are a section of the palace still decorated and filled with original furnishings from the 1500s up to the 1800s, and they are spectacular. We also lucked out because right as we were entering, an older male employee was offering a free tour of the King's apartments that are not open to the public, and we were the only participants! So my mom, aunt and I were privately taken into the kings apartments for a tour, and it was very cool! I kept asking the guide very sweetly if we could use one of the doors to the MANY hidden passage ways, and three times a charm! He let us walk across the room through the original passage door into a large bathing room, which he said he had never let anyone do before :) We also walked around the Boboli gardens, a huge area behind the palace that is completely green and great for exploring. I actually went on a cardio workout there yesterday because it is so large and beautiful. Anyways, all in all I think Pitti Palace was everyone's favorite stop.

After Pitti we tried a restaurant for lunch sitting over the Arno river by Ponte Vechio that my Aunt Linda had found in a Rick Steves book. It had yummy salads and wine with a perfect view of the river! We drank a lot of wine on this trip... like a lot of wine, between lunch, hotel happy hour and dinner, but we were on vacation so we didn't care! It was all fun.

Thursday we woke up bright and early and caught a train to Venice! This was also about the time that the hotel maids realized I was sleeping on the extra couch in the hotel room and finally made me a bed with sheets on it, so thanks maids at Hotel Davenzanti! But back to Venice, we hopped on the 2 hour train ride and had the entire day to explore and walk along the water. It was a beautiful day, and we got to go on a gondola ride on the grand canal! We ate lunch at a restaurant overlooking the open body of water as well in the sun and I can't imagine a more beautiful time. The best part of the trip was out last stop for a drink next to the Rialto Bridge before we left to go back to Florence. We were sitting next to the water, and all was beautiful, so when we asked for some bread and the waiter pointed to something on the menu with no price, we were in our happy place and said sure! That sounds great! An entire cheese, olives and meat plate with bread came out, and we knew it was going to be pricey, but whatever! We're in Venice! Yeah, 30 euro that freaking meat plate cost us! Thanks a lot waiter! But it was worth the relaxing view for an hour. As my aunt says, "Oh well! It's just money!". I think that's another phrase we should add that sums up our week. Ha!

Friday I took them to the huge food market so they could experience something local. They loved it, and we all ended up with different food items (lots of dried fruit for me!). We also visited the two main churches of Florence, Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, where Michelangelo and Galileo are buried. This was also a beautiful sunny day. We were blessed with great weather this week. For our last dinner, we ended with another visit to Dante's, my favorite restaurant, which ended with lots of wine and very happy packing back in the hotel room, haha! It was a great week that flew by, and I miss my mom and aunt already :(

Yesterday I worked out for a bit in the Boboli gardens and then took a nap because my family wore me out big time. Today I ventured to the outskirts of Florence to visit a mall with a place called Media World. I bough a new camera because as you've noticed from the lack of pictures, mine is gone in Assisi somewhere. Hopefully this one will last a lot longer than the last! I had to take the tram for the first time, but luckily I got off at the right stop and didn't get lost. On the tram ride back, a woman photographer was sitting across from me and asked if I had ever been a model, and If I would like to be one of her models! She was very sweet, and gave me her website and information to contact her. We'll see if it ever happens! I could use the extra money!

Ciao!