Emma's Travels in Italy

Florence

Prior to our time in Rome, I arrived early to get in a bit of extra Italy exploration. I spent about three days in Florence, exploring many highlights of the city. I was left amazed by the vast amount of history and art on every corner. I really only hit the basics and hope to return to Florence one day to explore everything I missed.

Thursday, March 7

Climbed to the top of the Duomo
Visited the Opera del Duomo Museum

Friday, March 8

For International Women's Day, many of the museums provided free admission to all women! Therefore, I had to visit as many museums as possible.

Visited the Uffizi Gallery
Visited the Palazzo Vecchio museum
Walked through the Boboli Gardens
Visited the Pitti Palace

Sunday, March 10

Shopped and explored more of Florence
Visited Accademia Gallery

Piazza della Repubblica

Venice

With the extra time before Rome, I also did a day trip to Venice. Only about a 2-hour train ride from Florence, it was the perfect opportunity to visit a few of the highlights. Unfortunately, it was raining the morning of my visit, leading to some flooding in St. Mark's Square and on the Grand Canal. The rain still made for nice visits to the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica. Once the skies cleared a bit, I was able to walk around more and enjoy the winding streets of the city.

The whole city is so picturesque with the narrow canals and alleys. However, I also found it to be the most filled with tourists of all of the places I visited. There was a lot of crowding in peak areas, which was also complicated because of large tourist groups. I found more peace in side streets and small squares apart from the main sites. This also happened to be the day with the most walking on the whole trip, with 29,227 steps tracked. It was quite an exhausting day, but I was glad to have seen the city briefly.

Rome

Food