Firenze/Pisa (July 8th)

We absolutely LOVED Florence. It had such a different feel to it than Rome and Naples--there were big wide streets and big open markets and shops and people walking and riding bicycles everywhere (it was rare to see a car as we were walking down the streets). It's a place I would definitely go back to one day if I had the opportunity.

In Florence, we had booked a food tour through Taste of Florence, somehow without realizing that our actual port was about a 2 hour bus ride away from the city of Florence--because the cruise itself advertised the port as Florence. I guess Florence sounded more appealing than the actual city we were docking in. :)

Anyway, when we asked the cruise concierge how best to get to Florence for our tour by 10am, he told us that there was absolutely no way that we could make it there by 10am. So, we started freaking out, seeing if we could cancel (we couldn't) and emailing the company to tell them that we would probably be late and to see if we could meet up with them somewhere along the tour. We were pretty bummed though, because it seemed inevitable that we would miss at least part of the tour.

However, almost everything the concierge told us turned out to not be true--we were able to get off the ship about an hour earlier than he told us, had no trouble finding a taxi to the train station and there were plenty of early trains (though we weren't exactly sure if Firenze was Florence, but we couldn't find anyone to ask, so we crossed our fingers, bought the tickets and hoped for the best!). We ended up making it to Florence and actually to the steps where we were meeting our tour group a little before 10am. In hindsight, we think that maybe he was instructed to make people try and book the cruise excursions and not ones through other companies, like we had done. Regardless though, we were SO happy to have made it there on time, but we could have done without all the stress of thinking we weren't going to make it, haha!

Instead of doing a traditional tour through Florence, we did a food tour. It was recommended to us by a few people who had been to Florence, and then once we saw it was the #1 thing to do on Trip Adviser for Florence, we were sold. We began the tour by walking to a little bakery, the oldest in Florence, where she ordered some ham and cheese breakfast pastries. Delicious. We made our way through a couple of different bakeries and she would order us food at each place, tell us a little about the bakery and then tell us some about the kind of food they have.

Then, we made our way to a huge food market--they sold prepared food, deli foods, fresh fruits and veggies, pastas and so much more. We tried some traditional boiled veal, which wasn't horrible, as long as I didn't think about what I was eating, and then got a tour of the place. It was neat---it made me wish we had something like that by my house; everything just seemed so fresh.

Before we left, our tour guide set up a little station at the back of the market where we learned way more than I ever knew there was to know about balsamic vinegar (who knew it could be so sweet and so think if aged 30 years??) and olive oil and ate some different cheeses and sauces and some of the best pesto I've ever had, among other things. So fun; I loved it. I even loved learning all about the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

We ended the tour with a LOT of gelato and then some wine and crustinis. Gelato (the kind made with milk) originated in Florence and we ate a bunch of it at one of the oldest gelato shops in Florence, whose name means (in English) "Why not?". I love it. And, we loved the gelato; out guide, who was awesome, would put together 2 flavors for us to try, one fruity and one made with milk, and hand them out to us. A lot of times they were combinations I would have never put together, like white chocolate and watermelon, but they were all delicious. And then, before we left, the store owners let us try any flavors we wanted so we tried some more unusual ones, like fruit salad and lavender, which amazingly tasted just like you would expect lavender to taste. :)

Lastly, we headed to the winery, where we bought some really cool pasta at their attached food market, and learned all about the different classifications of wine in Italy and what it takes to get certain labels. It was pretty interesting; I had no idea there were so many rules and regulations! Then, we tasted a sparkling white wine, 2 red wines and ate some food, before calling it a day.

We both loved the food tour, and learned a lot! I would definitely recommend it if you are ever in Florence--and, if you're going to be there for a few days, do it at the beginning of your trip because she gives you A LOT of awesome restaurant recommendations and a map of where they all are. That alone made me want to stay in Florence for a few more days! :)

After the tour we had about an hour before we had to be on the train to make it to Pisa, so we browsed around at this awesome open air market place that actually had nice things and not just touristy junk, which was a nice change. Then, we grabbed some fresh pasta at a little restaurant on the way to the train station (we couldn't leave Italy without having some fresh pasta--and it was SO good!!) and took a quick trip to Pisa.

We literally were in Pisa for all of an hour, because we didn't want our ship to leave us there, ha! We got off the train and had no idea how to get to the leaning tower of Pisa, because we'd basically been told you could see if from the train station. Let me tell you, you can't. :) So, we asked a few people and pieced together what they were telling us in Italian and finally found it. We had a good time taking all the usual pictures--except that I was really bad at it, haha! I could never get my hands in the right places to make it look like I was holding it up! Oh well--we still had fun!

After getting all the pictures we wanted and taking one more quick look around, we headed back to the train station and got on one of the last trains back to our port. Everything had pretty much worked out perfectly, which is funny considering how stressed we were about it the day before, and we even made it back to the ship with a little time to spare.

Again, it was a really nice day. This was the first city of the trip (besides Barcelona) that we walked away from saying we'd like to go back there one day!