Day 8 Rome to Florence Sunday 29th December 2013:

This morning after a good night sleep feeling rested and energized from such a big day of exploring and experiencing Rome.

We made our way to the dining room at 6:30 am for our included breakfast in the hotel.

After breakfast we checked out of our hotel rooms and took our bags to the coach at 7 am.

We departed Rome full of new experiences and memories and boarded the coach and made our way to Florence at 7:15 am.

As we made our way towards Florence our Trip Manager Rebecca gave us a history lesson and language lesson with basic greetings and helpful phrases.

As we made our way into Florence Rebecca explained our itinerary which included:

A souvenir group photo in one of Florence’s famous piazzas with the city’s stunning panoramas as a back drop which was a great memento of our travels, a included Florentine leather craft demonstration, a included walking tour with a local guide seeing Florence’s famous buildings such as the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, the Basilica of Santa Croce, Giotto’s Bell Tower, the Bapistery of St John, the Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio, free time to explore Florence.

Before making our way to our hotel and getting ready for our optional excurions in Florence which included:

A Tuscan Evening at an authentic Florence restaurant before experiencing Florentine nightlife at the Space Electronic Disco Nightclub.

We arrived at the location for our group photo at 10am.

The photographer organized the group together so that they could get the best photo with everyone fitting in.

This group photo was such a great way to remember such a great time we had in Europe with new friends.

After our group photo we boarded the coach and made our way in the city centre.

We followed Rebecca through Florence were we made our way to Leonardo’s Leather Works.

Our local guide demonstrated the difference between how real and fake leather is made.

The shop smelled amazing of leather!

Once our demonstrations had finished we had the option to purchase jewelry and leather made in Florence!

After our Leather Demonstration we met our local guide at 12 pm.

Our local guide showed us through Florence on our walking tour learning all about the history including amazing churches and sacred art.

We started our walking tour by walking to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore which we learnt is the third largest church in the world!

We continued walking through Florence and made our way to Giottos Bell Tower which is a free standing Bell Tower that is part of the buildings that make up the Florence Cathedral on the Piazza del Duomo.

One of the most visited places in Florence and Europe!

We continued our walking tour and made our way to the Baptistery of St John.

We learnt that the Bapistery is one of the oldest buildings in Florence and was constructed between 1059 and 1128.

We also learnt the Italian Poet Dante Alighieri was baptized in this baptistery.

We continued our walking tour through Florence and made our way to our final stop of our walking tour the Ponte Vecchio.

We learnt the Ponte Vecchio is segmental arch bridge built over the Arno River.

The Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge that wasn’t destroyed by German bombings during World War II!

Once our walking tour had concluded at 2 pm we had free time to explore Florence.

We met up with Rebecca at 4 pm and boarded the coach and made our way to our hotel for the night.

We arrived at our Hotel Nil Florence at 5 pm.

Once we checked into our rooms and got changed for our night out in Florence we met Rebecca at the hotel reception at 6:30 pm.

We boarded the coach and made our way to our authentic Florence restaurant for our Tuscan Evening.

We arrived at our authentic Florence restaurant Ristorante La Certosa at 7pm.

For our Tuscan Evening which was in such a beautiful area:

When we arrived we were greeted with a smile by the wait staff and were shown our tables with about 8 people to a table.

The wait staff then placed 6 or 7 1L bottles of red and white wine on each table.

The waitstaff then served us appetizers of antipasti including bruschetta, toasted bread with tuscan salami and a mix of tuscan specialties.

For main course we had a selection of pastas including lasagne, ricotta and spinach ravioli, spinach and feta cannelloni and tagliatelle with mushrooms, which was the best pasta we had in Italy!

We sang drank and danced with each other as we enjoyed our final night in Italy.

For dessert we had a choice of tiramsu, pineapple with marcaschino liqueur and certosa ice cream cake which was the perfect way to end our Tuscan Evening in Florence!

After such an amazing dinner of pasta and wine the group boarded the coach at 10 pm and made our way to Space Electronic Disco.

Space Electronic Disco is one of the largest nightclubs in Florence with different zones spread over 2 levels!

When we arrived at Space Electronic Disco.

We were given a drinks card which you get stamped when you get a drink and you pay for at the end of the night before leaving.

After drinking and dancing off our dinner a group of us decided to head back to the hotel just after midnight.

We caught a cab outside the nightclub back to our hotel arriving at 12:30 am.

We made our way to rooms and headed to bed to be rested and energized for a long drive to Switzerland in the morning.

Italy was such an experience full of history, amazing food and great memories and new experiences I will cherish forever.

Safe Travels!

Campbell 🙂