Who knew Italy wasn't just beautiful men and spaghetti?

 A few weeks ago I went on the trip of a lifetime to Italy, home of pasta, art, and beautiful men. At least that's all I thought it was before I took a 12 hour flight to Florence with my mom to meet my sister, Kenna, who is studying abroad there for 4 months. I'm going to be perfectly honest, I hate sitting in the same spot for 12 hours. I absolutely hate it. It seems the struggle between my hate of ridiculously long flights and my ever present wanderlust has made itself known. Anyway flying in to Florence from Paris we passed over the Alps, so of course I whipped out my camera for a picture of these snow covered beauties.

After landing we jumped in a taxi and sped(I'm being honest when I say sped, the rules of the road are...well...nonexistent) through the streets of Florence, the cuore of Italian art and culture(in my opinion anyway). The first thing we saw was the magnificent Duomo, only a short jont from our hotel. 

Made of marble, the Duomo was began in 1296 by Arnolfo di Cambio and finished in 1436 by Filippo Brunelleschi after a contest between him and Lorenzo Ghiberti to design and build the dome of the cathedral. Seeing the cathedral leaves you breathless and continously wondering how they built the structure. Trust me, I walked by it over 15 times while I was there and every time I looked up, I was amazed.

My sister had in her head that once we got to Florence we would be dog-tired and want to head straight to bed. However, not only did we somehow skip jet-lag but we were so worked up on an OHMYGOSHIMINITALY- adrenaline rush we had to get out and see the city. So we took a stroll to Piazza della Signoria-a.k.a my soon to be favorite Piazza in Florence(and there's a lot of them) and home of fake David.

Fake David- I would later see the real David- it's amazing if you were wondering.

'Hercules and Cacus' by Baccio Bandinelli

'The Rape of the Sabine Woman' by Giambologna

'Fountain of Neptune' by Bartolomeo Ammanati

Italy has this wonderful "It's beautiful, let people look at it' policy so Piazza della Signoria is partially made up of Loggia dei Lanzi- an outdoor gallery that holds renaissance art, that you can look at and sit next to and take pictures of and the best part is...it's free! I knew there was a reason I loved Piazza della Signoria...between the art and the atmosphere you have happiness and it's only a short walk to a tasty gelato shop.(I went to seven cities and tried gelato in all seven, no that's not a record but it should be).

The next day, we headed over to the River Arno to take a look at the Ponte Vecchio(literally Old Bridge) which is famous for being lined with shops. We would later find out the whole of the bridge is filled with gold and silver shops, but apparently there is a hotel somewhere on the seemingly stable overhangs.

If someone could clarify what these row boats are called that would be great.

'Kenna, stand there and take a picture of me please'

How is this legal- oh wait it's probably not but we're in Italy

What are this? What type of ornamental doorway decoration is this?

My first few days in Florence were amazing and already filled with fun! The next day we would lay our scene in fair Verona and become sisters of the lovely Juliet before heading to Venice for some gondola-filled fun. But just to keep you intrigued here's a picture of mom and Kenna on the morning before our train ride to these amazing places(there train system is the best. Ever.) Jewel.