I talked about how I was getting ready for my trip and what I was taking on the blog, but I also wanted to share some photos and stories from my vacation abroad. I’m starting this Travel Tuesday series as a way to hopefully share information about places I go and my experiences.
We flew from Louisville to Newark and then caught a connecting flight to Milan.
After we landed in Milan, we took a train down to Florence. All in all, it was a pretty long travel day, but I was so excited when we got to our hotel. We stayed at the Westin Excelsior Florence.
The lobby here is absolutely beautiful as you can see — there is a full bar here and also on the roof. The lobby has free wi-fi so I spent a good amount of time there to catch up on iMessages, emails and social media. We stayed at this hotel when we were in Florence two years ago and loved the views it offered of the Arno River and also how centrally located it is (just a quarter of a mile from the train station).
The views from this hotel are incredible, the staff gives great customer service and there’s absolutely no other place I’d want to stay in Florence. If I ever get married, I’m trying to convince my parents to let me have a destination wedding on the roof here — Dad, are you reading this?
By the time we had gotten settled, it was a little after two which is late for lunch in Florence — most restaurants in Italy close after the lunch hours and reopen around 7. Luckily, the concierge had called over to a nearby restaurant and they stayed open so that we could eat!
We had dinner at Il Profeta before and were excited to eat there again. The restaurant is somewhat famous in Florence because it was visited by John Travolta and he loved one of their specialty pastas so much. The owner waited on us to get there and then acted as our waiter. He and his wife are both super kind and treated us so well.
We started out with bruschetta, a thin Italian bread topped with olive oil and another one topped with olive oil as well as tomatoes. The produce in this region is so fresh and delicious, I’m always super bummed when I get home because it does taste better than most of the fresh fruit and vegetables I buy at home.
I ordered ravioli stuffed with polenta for lunch and pretty much licked my plate clean. The serving sizes always seem so much smaller, but are somehow still incredible filling. The sauce on top of my pasta was an olive oil, grated parmesan mix that was SO tasty on bread.
After we had lunch, we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed some down time until dinner at 8 — i.e. I had a wild nap. I hadn’t really been able to get comfortable on the plane so I ended up crashing hard as soon as I got on that Westin mattress.
I was shaken awake, seriously I sleep like the dead, when it was time to leave and quickly fixed my hair and changed out of my flight clothes before we left.
Let me start by saying I could eat pasta every single day for the rest of my life and not be bored by it. Eating in Italy is like a dream come true for me. #CarbLover
The concierge recommended we try a restaurant called Parione, so we made the ten minute walk over and sat down. The tables were pretty tight — I ended up having to do some crazy gymnastic moves around the leg and corner of the table to just get in my chair. Our waiter spoke English but everyone else in the restaurant was a little confused by anything we asked, however, the food was BOMB.
My pasta carbonara had these little crouton like things sprinkled over the top along with cheese and fresh cherry tomatoes and prosciutto. I felt dead inside after knowing the meal was over, it was that good. Once the server had come and taken my empty plate away as I stared sadly at him, we settled the bill and headed back to the hotel.
Since I had taken the OG of all naps I was not as tired as everyone else — oops, and found the one spot in our hotel room that I could get the free wi-fi from #holla.
I woke up early the next morning and my parents came over to see if my brother or I wanted to go for a morning walk with them. Charles said he wanted to sleep in (weak), but I quickly threw on an outfit and headed out with them.
I hadn’t visited the Ponte Vecchio the last time, so I was super excited to walk down to the bridge and take it in.
We walked across the bridge which was a little underwhelming for me, the outside looks so grand and the inside is a little strip mall but fancier.
I had brought my new Instax Mini with me on our walk and my parents were both so intrigued by the tiny polaroids. Also, I saw a ton of dogs which made me really happy.
One of the things happening in Italy during our stay was Expo 2015, or the world fair. It seemed like everywhere in Italy was very excited and proud and there were lots of little extra things happening to celebrate. This mirrored version of the Florence Duomo was created for Expo.
We picked up some pastries and a cappuccino for Mom on the way back to the hotel; I turned up my nose when we got back because what I thought was a chocolate croissant was actually a Nutella croissant, boo, and then we headed out to the Pitti Palace.
The Pitti Palace has a gazillion (read: eight) museums inside and was owned by the Medici family and later was a power base for Napoleon. It also served as the king’s residence when Florence was the capital of Italy in the late 1800’s. #TheMoreYouKnow
We started by visiting the royal apartments which were gorgeous.
I was mesmerized by this view!!!! After we walked through the royal apartments, some of which still hold artifacts from when the Medicis lived there, we went out to the backyard, better known as the Boboli Gardens.
I don’t have a ton of pictures of this incline, mostly because I was dying — that gym membership didn’t help at all. Planet Fitness, I want my money back — jk, you’re great. Anywayssssss. We climbed up a serious incline, I was huffing, we finally get to the top and….there’s more to climb -_-
At the very, very top is the Porcelain Museum, I didn’t go in because I was still catching my breath (lolz) but the view from this “level” of the Gardens is absolutely stunning. There’s a large garden filled with roses (and lizards!) and you can look out over the valley into the Tuscan countryside a bit.
We started the descent down and then ended up going down one of the many paths (it’s kind of like a maze?) and ended up by a pond. At this point, my Clarks sandals had started to let me down and my feet were killing me, I was being a grouch and even the cute little ducks were not cheering me up.
I had wanted to go back to the hotel alone and ice my little piggies, but my dad quickly pointed out that there was going to be a lot of walking this trip (10+ miles a day) and I’d need comfy shoes so….we headed towards the Duomo where there’s a bit of shopping. At this point, I was beyond tired, my feet hurt, I was grouchy and jet lagged and almost punched a mime in the face when he wouldn’t leave me alone.
I went into an Athlete’s World Italia and tried on a couple pairs of sneakers before deciding on the Nike Free 5.0. I mostly chose them because of how good they felt on my feet – like a cloud, but also because I knew Steph has a pair she loves and I trusted her to not steer me wrong.
I tore up some chocolate gelato and all was well.
We went to dinner that night at Buca Mario and again top ten meal of my life. Seriously, it was so good that we were walking everywhere because I was eating everything. As a antipasto, or starter, I split a cheese and apple plate with my brother. I was not expecting the honey to have a little bit of white truffle oil in it, but it did and was actually really good on the cheese and apples.
Our waiter told us that everything was special and I kind of just thought he was being a jerk but….
My tortellini was beyond life changing. It was filled with white cheese and yes, those are huge slices of parmesan cheese on top. I was pretty incredulous but was pretty much ready to die after I ate this.
When you finish eating your entree, most Italian restaurants will come over and ask if you want to see a dessert menu. Not Buca Mario. I’d already prepared myself to groan and say no thanks to dessert when they rolled out a bar cart filled with sweets.
Because I have no will power, I got the strawberries with fresh Italian creme and was in desperate need of a place to lie down.
The next morning, when I woke up my allergies were on 100 so I went to a pharmacy and bought nasal spray — pretty sure I singed my nose hairs off, so you could say it was successful in a way. My brother, Charles, was not feeling so hot between allergies and jet lag so he stayed at the hotel while the rest of us went to Pisa. I’ll have a recap of Pisa in my next travel post.
After we got back, we headed to the Baptistry. Charles and my dad climbed the bell tower while I…ate more gelato. #noshamecampaign
After they came down, we went into the Baptistry where I was enamored with the floors.
The ceiling was also so beautiful and very detail oriented. Can’t imagine spending your whole life, lying on your back painting this…
That night, we went to the restaurant that had been my favorite, Trattoria Del Gobbi. When we went there on our last trip, I came back and talked about the meal to any and everyone that would listen.
The pasta was not as good as I remembered, but still good and because I don’t want to live a life disappointed by food, I split a slice of flourless chocolate cake with my mom that slayed my whole life.
The next day was Mother’s Day and we woke up and headed to Bologna. When we got back, I took a nap (as always) and then we went back to Buca Mario for our last dinner in Florence.
This antipasto was so good — it’s prosciutto topped with slices of parmesan cheese, basil and reduced balsamic vinegar. The vinegar ends up being sweet on top of the saltiness of the cheese and meat. Trying to recreate this at home ASAP. I was boring and had the tortellini again because I loved it so much. We did get a side of vegetables, but go figure they came fried.
I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Japanese tempura, but that’s what this reminded me of. I ate eggplant, say what?!, and it was delicious.
When we left, a member of the staff gave me an apron as a gift – so sweet.
The next morning, we got up and packed everything up to leave for Milan.
This was a bit (understatement) of a lengthy read, but I hope you enjoyed!
xo, Nicole
