I'm Back! Italian Vacation Recap - Florence and Venice

Good morning!  I can't believe it's been three weeks since I've blogged - I've not taken more than a week or so off since 2010.  However, the break was much needed.  I had an amazing vacation with my husband, and while I get back into the swing of things, I'll be sharing photos of our adventure before returning to your regularly scheduled posts about shoes and jewelry.


Florence
I found Florence to be an amazing city, and fell in love with the scenery... and the gelato.  We stayed at the Hotel Santa Maria Novella, near the piazza and church of the same name, and it was in a good location for walking and catching trains with heavy bags.  We did a walking/bus tour to cover the main sites, which I liked because it included admission to the two most popular sites (Accademia and Uffizi Gallery) and we covered a lot more groung in a day than N and I would have alone.  However, I was exhausted by the evening, and was already wishing I'd brought actual running shoes instead of Sperrys and Converse.

Learn from my mistake, ladies.  All that chatter about cute vacation shoes was ridiculous.  I suffered for days because of my refusal to be seen wearing cross-trainers all over Italy.

I was excited to go to the Pitti Palace and walk (actually hike) around the gardens and visit the costume gallery, which held clothes from the 1600s to 1990s.  N was unimpressed with the clothes, but I thought it was great!  Pictures weren't allowed, though.  :(

Venice
We took a day trip to Venice rather than spending a third day in Florence, and I was so glad we did.  The city was gorgeous, although it was cold and drizzly almost the whole time we were there.  We checked out the main sites, like St. Mark's Square, and visited Murano (bad idea on a Sunday, everything was closed) and the Peggy Guggenheim Museum.  However, my favorite part of the day was when our water bus accidentally came upon the America's Cup race and ended up right in the thick of it!  It was scary, but awesome... and the USA boat totally won. 

Tomorrow... Sorrento and Capri!