Hello!! We spent about a day and a half in Florence during our Italy adventure through AAA and Collette and our full day there was a busy but amazing one!! We spent the entire day immersed in activities from a guided walking tour of the city to an after hours stop at a fourteenth century Certosa monastery and an excellent Tuscan feast to wrap up the night. Our meal was complete with opera singing and dancing and cutting a rug on the dance floor with my family was one of my favorite memories of the trip! Let’s discuss:

Our walking tour was a fascinating trip through Florence exploring all of the marvels that the city holds. We enjoyed sights of the Duomo, the Baptistery, the Palazzo Vecchio, and the Piazza della Signoria. The Piazza della Signoria was, easily, the best part of this tour for me and I could have stood there for hours taking the magnificent church in and it still wouldn’t have felt like enough. It was breathtaking! An ultra cool part of the tour was seeing “wine windows” which were used WAY back in the day and were brought back during the Covid pandemic. There was nothing better than getting a cool glass of wine directly through a window and sipping as we stepped through the city!

Once our tour was complete, we spent an hour or so shopping around and then went to the hotel to freshen up before an after hours tour of a monastery. Our guide for the tour was named Andrea and he took us through the monastery with such care and a delightful enthusiasm. We even got to go into one of the apartments that served as a home for the monks who lived there. It was awesome and I was overjoyed with the handful of picturesque shots I got:

Little did we know after our tour, that Andrea would be joining us at a restaurant a short drive away for the Tuscan feast. In fact, he was the star of the show! Throughout our multi course meal, Andrea treated all of us to the most beautiful opera music as he is a celebrated singer. And, in between courses, we got to join him on the dance floor to boogie to old and new favorites. Andrea was a hit with all of the ladies on the tour but especially my mom lol she totally had a crush and it was so funny! Heck, if we’re all being honest, I definitely had a crush too!! I’m not sure what the best part of this night was – the company or the food:

My vegetarian meal began with a spread of mushrooms and olives on Tuscan bread and a Caprese salad. I freaking loved the bread spread and actually had this several times during the trip. The mushroom spread was rich and creamy and the olive spread was bold, flavorful, and salty. So, so good! The next course was a dish of pasta and eggplant which was like heaven with every bite. The sauce was bursting with sweet tomato and the smokey eggplant pairing was sheer perfection. I wasn’t crazy about the following dish was an egg souffle thing but I was all about that dessert which tasted like Neapolitan ice cream in cake form. I think I could have had several more pieces of that!

After our Tuscan feast was complete, we took it to the dance floor for the rest of the evening before it was time to head back. A winery tour and arriving in Venice was next on our agenda and we all needed our beauty sleep!

What is your favorite Italian dish? What is your favorite travel activity? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah