Four Days in Florence

Florence was a step above Venice as far as tourism goes—there was plenty more of museums and sight seeing to do, but we kept a good balance of seeing the city for more than its sights, while still seeing some important art and history. For the record, our hostel in Florence, called Hostel Archi Rossi, was by far the best hostel I have ever stayed in, and should be considered the only hostel worth staying in in Florence. For 21 euros a night, we got breakfast AND dinner, computers with internet in each room, 5 communal computers in the lobby, wireless internet if you had your own laptop, a beautiful private garden and roof terrace, huge wardrobe lockers for each person, a super friendly staff, and comfortable and clean rooms.

Highlight of Florence was definitely the day we spent on an all inclusive bike tour of the Tuscany countryside. That morning began with leaving the hostel at 9:15, giving us more than enough time to meet our tour guides by 10 am. The directions said to meet them three bridges down from the Ponte Vecchio (a famous landmark). Well, we conveniently got turned around and walked three bridges down from the Ponte Vecchio, but in the completely wrong and opposite direction. By the time we got to the second bridge, it was 9:50, and the third bridge wasn’t even in sight. That’s when we started thinking we might have interpreted the directions incorrectly. So we found the nearest tourist with a map, and asked to look at their map to find the correct bridge. Sure enough, we had gone in the wrong direction. So with 8 minutes left to get there, we sprinted back in the direction we came. We raced along sidewalks along the Arno river, wearing our shorts, tennis shoes, carrying our water bottles and backpacks, looking like ridiculous Americans who are always in such a hurry. Dodging through traffic, nearly getting hit by bicycles, and tripping over our shoe laces, we made quite a scene. We finally got to the bridge before the one we were supposed to meet them at, and we were completely out of breath, and it had just turned 10:00. We gathered ourselves, wiped the sweat off our foreheads, and tried to roll up to the van without looking too frazzled. Our guide, Jillian, was patiently waiting for us, as the other van was full of people and they already left.

Jillian was great—she laughed as we told her the mistake we had made, and we jumped in the van and left the city. As we drove about 20 minutes outside of the city, she told us her story: how she grew up in California, studied abroad in Sienna several years ago, fell in love with an Italian man, and eventually made her way back to Italy four years later and is now married to him. We really hit it off with her from the beginning, and we knew it was going to be an amazing day. When we arrived to the garage with the bikes, we met up with the other eight people on our tour—two different couples from the London area, two girls from California, a girl from Mexico who had been studying in Florence, and her mom. We got outfitted with our bikes, and hit the road. Ally, Kelsey, and I held the lead for the entire day, cruising through the mountains covered in vineyards and small towns we passed through. After about 30 minutes, we stopped at a vineyard where we were given a tour and learned all about the wine making process. They also produced olive oil, and we learned how it is created and got to sample their different varieties. The tour of the vineyard ended with a wine tasting, seated at a long wooden table beautifully set with fresh cut wildflowers.

After the vineyard, two glasses of wine, and some olive oil dipped in bread, we got back on the bikes. Feeling mighty fine and ready to embrace the landscapes, we rode through a few more towns before we stopped for lunch. As I savored my four-bean soup, and swiss chard cooked in olive oil and garlic, we engaged in some great conversation with the rest of the group. We were clearly the liveliest of the bunch, with so many stories to share about Spain and the other cities we had visited in Italy. We got to know the owner of the bike company, a man from Colorado who also moved to Italy years ago when caught up in young love with an Italian woman. He had so many great stories about his different tourism jobs all over Europe: from guiding bike tours in Interlaken and parts of Germany, to planning hiking trips through the coast of Italy. I kind of want to live his life.