OK, OK... turns out that I can pick one specific travel memory to talk about. Everything about our trip to Florence was perfection. We rode to Florence from Paris on an overnight train where we had our very own cabin with three bunks. We even had dinner reservations in the dining car. It was so cool! Mark and Brad and I ended up eating with the editor of a French fashion magazine - after a little bit of wine we were all best friends. Eventually we stumbled back to our cabin and ended up sleeping very peacefully. This picture shows us before bed that night. I got the top bunk, Mark was below and Brad was on the bottom. Notice the ever-ready book in my hands. I think I read 3 books on that trip. Now that is my perfect holiday!
Sleeping on the train was awesome - that is, until we were rudely woken up and thrown off in Florence at the crack of dawn. What happened to the leisurely breakfast we were promised? Well, our steward overslept so I guess we were not meant to have pastries and coffee that morning. No matter. We were loose on the streets of Florence at 7:00 in the morning so we got to do a little exploring before everyone else was out and about. We left our bags at the hotel and headed out. This is a picture from that morning.
We always hated red wine despite Brad's best attempts at getting us to drink it. However, to fully experience Italy's best we knew we couldn't travel there without drinking some wine so we literally forced ourselves to get used to the taste. Our motto at the time was "Just keep drinking it... it will get better." By the time we arrived in Florence we did love red wine and I am so glad. One of my best memories is sitting in our hotel room in Florence drinking red wine, eating cheese and laughing with Mark and Brad. Sitting in the piazza late at night toasting the day is not far behind as those memories go...
Florence in general is an amazing place and we were lucky enough to get almost a whole week there in the off season (so there weren't very many people there) and the weather was perfect! It was in the mid-70s to low-80s the whole time. One day we decided to trek to Michelangelo's Plaza. It took us forever but we finally arrived and it was magical. This is a picture of the view...
On our way back we stopped for a "little" gelato. It still makes me laugh. I swear that cone was as big as my head and cost the equivalent of $15 US dollars. This picture with Brad is the best one I could find. The three of us together only managed to eat about about 1/2 of it before I had to throw it away.
Being in Florence is like being outside of time. Of so many travel memories, Florence stands out as a distinct time of peace and simple happiness. We were all just so happy to be there together drinking wine, eating gelato. What a wonderful adventure!
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