Charlotte in the City: Italy

During "Flexible Learning Week" I convinced (not that it was too hard..) Matt to go to ITALY! I found great tickets to Venice and knew we could take the train to Florence from there pretty easily. Because this was a bit of a longer trip, I thought I'd do a photo diary to best explain our lovely week in the land of pasta and gelato.

MONDAY

Since our flight wasn't until the afternoon, we had a leisurely morning. We went to the gym, ate breakfast, packed, and cleaned up the flat. We flew the always-lovely Ryan Air from Edinburgh to Venice Treviso. Now, since this isn't Venice's main airport, we had to take a 40-minute bus to get to the "city center", where we would take a water taxi to meet the Airbnb host. I'll never forget getting to the "city center", which was really just an abandoned-looking dock. Luckily, we found the right platform and were able to cruise through the Grand Canal and met Marcuzio by the Rialto Bridge without issue! After dropping our stuff off, we headed out to get a slice of pizza and gelato. The pizza was delicious, the Coke Zero basically revived me, and the gelato was hands-down the best I've ever had in my life. It was hazelnut with a pistachio creme swirled throughout. The combination of sweet and salty, plus the texture of the pistachio creme... I still dream about it. Matt honestly seemed kind of concerned by how much I enjoyed it. He got a fresh berry gelato that was also delicious. I think I blacked out from how good the gelato was because the next thing I remember is waking up on Tuesday morning.

TUESDAY

We started off at the same place where we went the night before for pizza! We both got pastries and hot chocolate. Then, we embarked on a free walking tour. I found this tour on Trip Advisor, and it had amazing ratings. Each guide does a different route, depending on what they are interested in. It was an awesome way to see parts of Venice we wouldn't have otherwise seen. They make a point to not take you to St. Mark's Square or other super touristy areas. The tour was awesome, except for the fact that my feet were literally freezing. I lost feeling in them about 20 minutes in. The tour guide gave us a quick break to tinkle and we sprinted into McDonald's so Matt could use the facilities and then we each tried rubbing my feet to get feeling back in them. Luckily, after the tour I changed into my boots and was very comfortable the rest of the day!

Matt in the Jewish Ghetto in front of the bank where the term "in the red" originates from

The Rialto Bridge

Gorgeous view from the roof of a department store

St. Mark's Basilica

The coolest department store right by our Airbnb!

Doge details

The Bridge of Sighs

So glad we went to Suso Gelato 5 times in 2 days :)

WEDNESDAY

We took the train from Venice to Florence. We decided to walk to the train station, which ended up being fine, although we got lost a few times along the way ;). The train was lovely! We passed through snow, the countryside, and a few small towns. Once we made it to our Airbnb, we set off to explore! We saw the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, and walked up to the beautiful Piazzale Michelangelo. It was a great way to get acclimated to the city. We had a great lunch at Zaza's, but our dinner that night was really spectacular! We ordered the 40oz. Florentine steak at a small, local place our Airbnb hostess reccomened to us. It was delicious! Matt said it was the best steak he's had in his whole life. Naturally, we finished the day with gelato.

THURSDAY

Thursday was museum day! We began the day at the amazing Uffizi Galllery. It was amazing to see famous works from Michelangelo, DaVinci, and others. I only remembered a little about this place from the trip three years ago, so it felt basically brand new! After the Uffizi, we got panninis for lunch. They were good, but nothing compared to Sub Shop in Memphis, which seriously has the most delicious sanwiches EVER. Next up was the Accademia to see the David. There is something so awe-inspiring about turning the corner and seeing Michelangelo's masterpiece looming large under his special dome. Matt and I sat (it was practially empty) and took it all in for almost half an hour. The other room full of statues was really cool too. What we did next was an idea from my mom! We walked all the way to the St. Regis, which is where my family stayed when we came in 2015. I love the area around the hotel. We went to the gorgeous Winter Garden for tea! It was very quiet and the perfect way to warm up, chill out, and it felt extremely luxurious. Matt decieded our next activity was going to be hiking to a park! We walked up several very steep hills, passed where Kim and Kanye got married, and ended up smack-dab in the middle of nowhere. Despite this, we enjoyed the beautiful sunset and have a few good laughs. After walking back to our hotel, we were both too tired to do anything dramatic for dinner. So, we returned to the trusty Zaza's! I had delicious gnocchi, and Matt had the pizza again. It was a perfect last meal.