Day 10 — Florence, the favorite

Written by Wendy from the road · photographs by Tatiana

We decided to skip the last stop at La Spezia and added a night in Florence, so we jumped on the Trenitalia train and off we were. We stayed at the Bed and Breakfast Badia Fiorentina for 3 nights. This hotel was great because it was located right in the center of EVERYTHING!

We arrived, put our stuff down and immediately headed out to discover this amazing city. Florence was by far my favorite. There were so many amazing places to visit from leather shops to live concerts everywhere, cafes, gelato shops, lots of shopping options and so much more.

The receptionist recommended we go to Antico Ristorante Paoli 1827 for lunch/dinner so we did. OMG this place was amazing inside! It was pretty much a museum with the most amazing architecture, paintings, food and history behind it; even the restrooms were cool. They even had a book where they recorded all the famous people that had been there since they opened in 1827. I highly recommend going there when visiting the historic center of Florence. You will not regret it. Again, the food was AMAZING!

After that we started venturing out to see what this city had to offer. Immediately we came across an orchestra practicing for later that night. We decided that we would come back and watch them at night and just wandered around the city. After a while we went back to our room to rest a bit.

At night we headed back out and everywhere we went, there was live music so the whole center felt so lively. We were craving gelato so we went to Venchi which was by far my favorite gelato place. We made our way back to the outdoor symphony concert which was already playing and enjoyed the beautiful music until it finished.

Afterwards we headed to Rudi's Bistro where they were showing the World Cup Colombia vs Switzerland game. Being Colombian it was exciting to watch even though we lost.

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Places from this day

• Bed & Breakfast Badia Fiorentina — Right in the centre of everything. Three nights.
• Antico Ristorante Paoli 1827 — A restaurant that is really a museum. Do not skip it.
• Venchi — By far my favorite gelato place.
• Rudi's Bistro — World Cup, Colombia vs Switzerland. We lost.
• Ponte Vecchio & the Arno — The bridge at night, and the river at dusk.
• Florence after dark — Loggia dei Lanzi, the carousel in Piazza della Repubblica, and musicians everywhere.