Honey and Ang's Excellent Italian Adventure: 9€ of 20€ Worth of Culture in Florence

And we're back with another installment of Honey and Ang's Excellent Italian Adventure! We ended our last installment just before Ponte Vecchio...

{Love locks by Ponte Vecchio.}

{It is good to stay hydrated when walking over bridges.}

Ponte Vecchio was not how I had thought it would be in my mind. I'm not exactly sure what I thought it would be like, but I was not expecting Philadelphia's jeweler's row! Our family had a shop down at 8th and Walnut for over 75 years, so it gave me the warm and fuzzies to see something similiar in Italy (or at least similiar to what I can imagine were the glory days of jeweler's row).

{Palazzo Pitti.}

After gawking at all that glimmer and gold, we stopped for some gelato and espresso, and pressed on to Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens.

{Hi Ang!}

{View from the rose garden at Boboli Gardens of the Tuscan countryside and olive groves...}

We walked for hours in the sun and heat, but it was well worth it. We felt that we especially deserved our truffle gnocchi that night!

11€ for entrance to the Galleria Academia + 9€ for entrance into the Boboli Gardens = 20€ of awesomeness in Florence.

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey

Blasphemous.

All the baguettes in France and my dad brings home sliced white bread from the store today. You can take the man out of the United States but not the United States out of the man I guess. Le sigh.

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey

Cheesesteak o'clock.

Oh happy day! Not only did Doc come home to France today after a week back in the United States, but he brought me the best present he could have having flown through Philadelphia International Airport: a cheesesteak from Chickie & Pete's with whiz (cheez whiz for those of you not in the know). It's a well traveled cheesesteak, having been flown from Philly -> Zurich -> Geneva and then carried by bus to France. What a great way to watch last night's Phillies/Rockies game today!

He's a good kid. Think I'll keep'em.

Hope all of you are having just as delicious a Wednesday as I am.

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey

Honey and Ang's Excellent Italian Adventure: 11 € of 20€ Worth of Culture in Florence...

After having spent our whole first full day in Florence shopping at the San Lorenzo street market, we figured that we should spend our last full day in Florence getting some culture in, and that we did. A full 20€ worth.

{He looks like the little dude here.}

Our first stop of the day was to the Galleria Academia to see the David, along with some of the other art work that really pales in comparison once you've seen him in gigantic form up close...

{In line to the see the David.}

{People have obviously waited in line quite a long time to see the David.}

The line wasn't horrible when we got there at 8:45 am, and we only had to wait about 45 minutes to get inside. No pictures can be taken inside the Galleria Academia, so the photo tour ends here...

My favorite way to explore a new city is to just get lost. I find that you stumble upon the most amazing and interesting things that way, and it's always a surprise. So once we were done at Galleria Academia we decided to just walk and look for a cafe to grab some espresso and something to eat.

We wandered back into the piazza with the Duomo, Cathedral and Bapistry, and were amazed by the amount of people in that little square. Turns out it was also a holiday, a saint's day of some sort, maybe St. John the Baptist? Not sure, being that I'm not Catholic, but whoever's day it was a lot of people seemed to think he was a pretty big deal.

And just by wandering, we came upon the square with the fake David statue, along with some other really impressive architecture and sculpture work...

{I loved this fountain, but have no idea what it is called.}

{Hey! That's me in front of that fountain that I loved!}

{Hello gorgeous.}

{I heart their helmets.}

After pressing my face up against the window at Chanel for awhile, we were starving. But yet we kept walking, rather than stopping for food. We're hardcore explorers like that.

{Walking along to Ponte Vecchio.}

To be continued...

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey

American girl/French girl.

My parents have arrived and we've been out and about exploring our little section of France for the last few days. Honestly I think they would be happy if we just walked along the countryside for the next 2 weeks, without any day trips or anything! Yesterday one of our walks was down to our shopping center in the Val Thoiry (i.e. the mall that the 80's left behind), and wouldn't you know it, the SOLDES was still going on...

Thanks to the SOLDES, (and the generosity of mon parents), I was able to pick up two pretty sweet pairs of new kicks. The first pair, red Bensimmons, which have been labeled by many as the "french girls Converse," (I disagree though, I think they're the french girls Keds...), are a long time coming. I've been wanting a pair since before we moved abroad, and I'm now feeling uberly french wearing these little red numbers today.

{'Merica.}

And these little babies - oh yeah!!!

Don't act like you don't love'em. Talk about one side of the spectrum to the other. Now if only I can find a pair with the French flag on it, and then I can wear one of each. Straight up stylin'.

C'mon Converse, make it happen.

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey