florence

after our venice experience we took a 2 hour train ride to florence. the train was awesome. it was so fun to see the countryside of italy.

and here's florence!...

our huge rental car! hehe...

climbing the hill to our hotel...

our rooms view! we stayed in a beautiful hotel on a hilltop just outside of florence...

night view from our window...

we drove to the outskirts of florence the first day there & parked our car on top of a hill and walked down into town {ben did NOT want to drive in the city of florence. we saw enough of the drivers coming from the train station to the car rental place...they're CRAZY!!}.

the view of the historical part of florence from where we parked...

we were chuckling pretty hard about this one. it's a kneeling prayer bench in one of the churches. notice the money slot right where you bow your head! ha!...

i snuck this picture with my phone's camera. the statue of david was awesome! it was so cool to actually see it in person. wow...

i loved this merry go round in the middle of a square...

this pic is out of order {look below}...we climbed a TON of stairs to the top of the famous florence duomo...

there is absolutely NOTHING like the gelato we ate in italy. there were gelato shops on every corner. aMAZINg!...

a little street cafe we ate lunch at...

the cathedral of the duomo {largest dome in italy}...

like i said earlier, inside we climbed over 2oo stairs to the top...

here i am at the first level we climbed to...

we climbed even higher...

at the bottom looking up...

tourists, tourists everywhere! {and this was the off season?!}...

this is where the statue of david was originally {this is a replica}...

the fleur de lis was everywhere...just like our bedroom here at home. hehe!