This weekend I headed down to Florence with Melanie by my side. Last summer was my first time exploring this romantic city with Kurtis. It was so strange being back. Every where I looked there was a memory of what I had done the previous time I was there like getting caught in a rain storm and missing our 5th walking tour, watching the sunset (and drinking lots of wine) on the Ponte Vecchio and Piazzale Michelangelo, and falling in love.

Florence is a beautiful city, especially the Piazza del Duomo. Despite walking around the entire day, the city itself isn’t that big.

We grabbed some food from the market–a fresh spelt, cucumber, tomato and onion salad plus some friend zucchini–and made our way through they city. The July sales are on, so we spent most of the day looking at the sites and weaving in and out of some shops.

After a quick pick me up spritz we continued to walk around until the blisters on my feet were threatening to explode.

We stayed at the PLUS Hostel Firenze, which I would definitely recommend. It’s a little outside of the city center, but the pool, in-house bar, and roof top view of the Duomo made it worth the walk.

Dinner was delicious. I’m always wary of eating at touristy spots, especially of the country I’m living in, and do everything I can to avoid menus with hamburgers on them. If you are looking for delectable food that’s not insanely expensive then check out Trattoria Zaza. You won’t be disappointed. I had tagliatelle in a truffle cream sauce that I am still thinking about days later.

With full stomachs we headed back to the hostel to enjoy some drinks before heading out for the night. Well, that was the original plan. What really happened is we had two drinks, I lost 50 euro, and someone stole our taxi.

Once we managed to get into a taxi we found out that the club, Full Up, that we wanted to go to is closed during the summer? Say wha?? Apparently it’s a winter club, which is very confusing. Our options were a place in Piazzale Michelangelo or in the South of Florence. Both seemed far, so I picked another bar called Space that was mentioned to me before. Another bad choice.

We were given cards that we had to use at the bar and pay after, then shoved through the door like cattle. From a small window we could see the dance floor that was mostly empty aside from some teenagers littered around. That was a big red flag. We turned right around while the bouncer yelled, “GIRLS GET BACK HERE!” (How about no) And headed back out into the city.

There wasn’t much going on besides a little Irish pub in the same piazza as the Duomo, but it shut early, so it was back to our hostel bunk beds for the night.

The next day we headed to Tuscany for a wine tour, which I will talk about in my next post!

P.S.–There’s a good chance that no one will read this, but does anyone know how to insert cell phone pictures into your blog post without them looking blurry or pixelated? I know you can increase/decrease the size, but they still turn out fuzzy. Thanks!