I started this post last night at 6pm local time and quickly fell asleep. After 13 hours of sleep I feel like a new person and can finish it.
It was a long day but we made it to Florence. The ride to the hotel made me realize that the cab drivers aren’t just crazy in Rome. This gentleman was very kind but speed limits were mere suggestions and pedestrians did not have the right of way. In fact he was going so fast down the single lane roads that he missed our hotel and had to circle around the one way streets for 10 minutes to get us back there.
This time we are staying in the heart of Florence. After wandering just a few blocks we were greeted with the beauty of the Basilica di San Lorenzo and just a few blocks later the grand Cathedral di Santa del Forno (the Duomo). It was more grand than we remembered and so beautiful. It is the holiday celebrating their liberation today so the city is packed with tourists.
We had a few hours before our hotel room was going to be ready and ended up touring yet another church, the Basilica di Santa Maria Novelle. We toured the inside, which held some amazing Renaissance art, along with the church itself.
We finally got our hotel room and took a quick 30 minute power nap before heading off to a pizza and gelato cooking class. It was only 2 blocks away but it was pouring rain. My navigation skills were off in this new country which doubled our run through the rain, but the upside was no cars trying to run us over.
The pizza and gelato cooking class was so much fun! We sat with a wonderful family from California and even met a few people from Iowa (small world). We each made our own pizza from scratch. My Nona would have so proud of my pizza dough and especially iof Trent’s as he recovered nicely after his well broke and he had water all over his station. The pizzas turned out amazing! And I even tried a small piece of anchovy on a bite. We also got a lesson making and buying gelato and the chocolate gelato they made for us was to die for. We’re excited to find all of traditional gelato that we can on our trip.



Sounds wonderful! Wish I was there too!❤️
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