Beautiful & Stylish Florence

On the way from Chianti to Florence is The Mall, which is an outlet for all things designer. We stopped off for a bit hoping to score some good finds but left empty handed. Living in the UK has it's perks, but not when it comes to shopping in Europe. Most places gave us prices with the tax rebate included, but when we told them we live in the UK, they just said, "oh sorry." Not that it would really matter, but I guess saving an extra 10-20% could be nice. Anyhow, it was nice to just browse around.

Instead of heading to a hotel, we decided to do things a little different, and stay in an apartment. Gerald did all the research and found us a great pad with a great location. It was located in Piazza Passera, which is the more residential area of Florence. Flavia, the owner, let us in, gave us the keys, and left us to pretend we were locals for the next few days. Too bad we didn't spend more time in this place, because it was beautiful!

















Since we both have been to Florence before, we decided to skip all the touristy museums (except for Gucci and Ferragamo) and focus on the food instead. Thanks to Luxe City Guides, we were not disappointed.  They gave us tons of off the beaten path suggestions; from artisan shops, gelaterias, restaurants to sightseeing.  I will definitely be using these guides for future trips. I especially enjoyed their suggestions because they were places where you would see locals or expat type people, rather than the masses of typical tourists. We did the typical tourist thing the first time, but being an educated tourist is so much better!

Our last evening in town, I wanted to see the sunset over Florence so we walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo to take in the view.








To end our wonderful adventure through Tuscany, we browsed through the local antique market in St. Spirito square. It was a very relaxing way to end our trip!



Until next time Italia, Ciao!