The Tuscan heat

It's slightly astounding to think that we're 10 days in and we're only just leaving France! But here we are on our first stop in Italy - Florence!

After a very long travel day, we crashed at the hostel before heading out to explore the city. We managed to catch the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in the most beautiful golden hour light, which was magical!

And, very excitingly, we had our first pasta of the trip - both of us had been holding out until Italy!

On our first full day in Florence, we started the day with our customary brunch - I feel I've eaten enough eggs to last a lifetime on this trip, but I'm not complaining! Also a fab cinnamon bun!

We then found a market in a nearby square, and enjoyed pottering around exploring the clothes, paintings, books, and various different knick knacks! 

The day then took on a more pottery vibe - we headed down to the river, and found the Ponte Vechio - Florence's answer to Pultney Bridge!

As the temperature climbed, reaching up to 30°C, we decided to head back to the hostel to miss the heat of the day. On our way back, we stopped by the Giunti Odeon - a cinema crossed with a bookshop!!

It was fab to sit in such a cool and quirky space, so we decided to book tickets to properly see a film in it after closing time. 

After a bit of downtime, we headed back out for an Aperol Spritz in the square, and our second pasta dish of the trip! It was then time to head back to the Odeon, so we settled down to watch The Drama - a film that I had very little urge to see up until that moment, but was different and diverting enough to be fun!

And then, after a 32, 000 step day, it was time for bed!

On our second day, we headed up to the Piazzale Michelangelo for an incredible view over the city. 

On the Piazzale, we also stumbled across some kind of vintage car rally. It was great fun to soak up the diesel fumes and watch some of the action, although the race did seem to be drawing to a close!

We then grabbed lunch in the brilliant central market, which had a food hall containing a multitude of different options - although we did give Lampredotto (the fourth stomach of a cow - a traditional Florentine street food) a miss!

We then swung by the Museo Leonardo Da Vinci on our way back to the hostel, which was fab and had a brilliant range of interactive exhibits! We both concluded that, while a genius, he perhaps lacked friends and was probably a phenomenally difficult person in real life. 

In the evening, we had a lovely meal at a pizzeria in a really nice neighborhood just over the river - it was really annoying to only discover that area on our last evening, as we'd struggled to find non-touristy places to eat! 

We then walked back with some wonderful final images of Florence at night.