Hi there, so this is something that I really had planned on doing much sooner than now. But life got in the way and time just seemed to go by a bit too fast. Started it but never finished. When I did my recap post on 2024 yesterday (click here if you  missed it, and enter your name for a special giveaway) I realized that I still had this sitting in my draft box. As is the Paris post,  which I will finish and post about in the next few weeks. This was such a special trip that it really warranted a third post, this leg of the trip is on Florence. This is my husbands favorite city and with good reason, it is beautiful, full of culture and history and seems more self contained than the huge city that Rome is, though both have serious redeeming qualities! If you missed part one click here and click here for part two.

Not too much narration here, it started off with us getting to a hotel which really shocked me ( I don’t intend to disparage the brand) so not putting it here but its a 5 star hotel whose hotels are very well known so I was really stunned at the rooms. I know the minute I walked in there was no way we were staying. I called American Express and within a few minutes we had arranged for us to go the Four Seasons  (I had been debating between these two) but gave an edge to this one for location.

Within an hour we were picked up to go to the Four Season and what a great decision it was. LOVED IT! To be fair the hotel in question, when they found out we were leaving pulled out all the stops including having their hotel manager come out and practically beg us to stay, I can’t even express how hard they tried and I give them serious kudos for their graciousness but my mind was made up and our bags were already waiting at the door. We have done most of all the must see sights before but revisited some of them to let our son experience them too. We did our fair share of shopping, after all everything there is so beautiful and well made. Overall we found the prices to be fair. And of course, did our share of eating…all diets were off for this trip!

Aside from that little snafu and getting sick for 2 days, everything else was just wonderful.We were lucky to get a string of fairly mild weather (mid 80’s) except the last day we were leaving it skyrocketed up to the 90’s and it made leaving just a wee bit easier:) I don’t do well in water above 85 plus the humidity PLUS the factor of body heat from all the crowds!!

So here is a pictorial overview of our visit to Florence…

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Arriving at the most elegant Four Seasons with huge pink orchids everywhere

 

Moving to our rooms…

We had a beautiful super roomy room with a beautiful view

The fragrant lemon and floral trees are HUGE, they looked like they are on steroids!

There’s peanut enjoying the pool on a warm day

 

More spectacular 12 foot lemon trees!

 

We enjoyed some great meals but this was probably our favorite in Florence, great food and beautiful ambiance, Cantinetta Antinori

Exploring….

Temptations  like this were at every corner

The Duomo always leaves me breathless with the mastery of architecture that was built in the 1200’s! Just a  marvel.

Went to the Uffizi Gallery always a treat, I have been twice before but loved seeing it through my sons eyes

 

For anyone wondering about crowds, in the busting shopping areas (aka where all the tourists were) the streets were packed.  By our hotel, however it was really nice and quiet. Needless to say after these kinds of crowds it was nice to get back to our tranquil neighborhood

Breakfast was always such a treat, we ate both indoors and out, the indoor breakfast room was just exquisite and the food excellent!

These chandeliers every where had me in awe

 

One of my favorite shops was Taf, they had the most beautiful highest quality clothes and of course, I bought precious little Phillip was not born yet this outfit above.

I love traditional kids clothes!

 

Florence at night is really special. We did a lot of walking. This fabulous church, Santi Michele e Getano was incredible! We were really impressed by how well lit the streets were and extremely clean too! It was fun window shopping too……

Favorite brand for bath products, every hotel has them, they are SOOO good!

Its not unusual to see extremely talented people singing opera in front of one of the beautiful churches or historic buildings..I got chills every single time!

Gelato decisions after a lot of walking ..husband and son deciding (I just take a few bites of whatever they get, its delish but super sweet so a few bites is my limit)

Mission accomplished!

On the last day we drove back to Rome and must say I was bowled over by their “rest area”, ours sure don’t look like this! It was amazing..

We get Mcdonalds and pretzels…Italy gets all this!!!!

 

 

And on the way spotted more incredible sunflower fields for as far as the eye could see, and I begged peanut to go into them so i could take a picture:)

And before I knew it, we were on the plane headed home (had a gin and tonic) to calm myself as I have mentioned before many times I am a nervous nelly flying and one ativan and a cocktail or glass of wine is my prescription to insure an anxiety free flight!

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Such a great trip, and so many wonderful memories. Despite my son being sick for 2 days and I got stomach bug for about as long, we made them most it and packed a lto of punch into the visit. It had been about 6 years since we were last there, so I vowed we will not wait so long to go back. Next time, we will explore some other areas, Amalfi coast (will be strategic when I visit as i cannot handle those summer crowds) and Puglia is high on my list too. I hope to travel a lot this year, these trips that I was lucky to take reinvigorated my lust for travel and seeing more of the world.

How about you? Any travel plans in your future? Do tell! Thanks for stopping in, until next time….

 

 

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And that’s a wrap on this final post on our amazing trip to Italy! If you have questions, please ask them in the comments section here and I will answer them here too so that way others can see the information as well. Just loved every minute of this special trip (except the stomach bug part)! Hope 2025 is good to you and brings you lots of fun adventures! Until next time…..