Mike had his yearly team meetings in a fabulous place for 2011 that I could not resist: Florence, Italy! This is his 6th year of team meetings in great places around the globe. Most years the meetings have taken place the week of my birthday too. However, this year I was not pregnant, not nursing, my kids are used to Singapore by now so I really had no good reason not to go!
We have had Marnelie, the world's best housekeeper and nanny, living with us for 6 years now and she knows the routine at home. We also roped in the two best babysitters on the planet to stay with the kids all week, Blake & Jane Moore.
With all that in place, we were off to Firenze!
We had a layover in Zurich. We enjoyed the 2 hours of coldish weather and Swiss chocolate while there.
After landing in Florence we quickly checked in and then set out to see some favorite sites of Flo-land. Our hotel was right down the street from the Arno River so it was easy to walk up and down the river to the sites.
Florence is a city full of beautiful art and architecture, which you are surrounded by wherever you turn:
Day one in Florence was super productive! We checked into the hotel, then went straight for some gelato, to the Duomo, Michaelangelo's David and dinner at Ristorante Paoli. There was a small line at the Piazza Academia, where David lives, so we cruised in and saw David right away.
I had to take this photo of this couple who sat down next to Mike and I while we were admiring David's tush:
I guess they didn't find David's tush as interesting as we did!
We stopped for dinner at our neighbor's fave restaurant in Florence; Ristorante Paoli.
I was very pleased with my ravioli: Bon Appetito!
On Monday Mike was free so we walked on over to the train station to take the train to Pisa.
We grabbed some pizza, on our way to Pisa.
We had some panini's while waiting to go up in the leaning tower: Yes, we ATE our way through Italy. The food was unbelievable!
Of course, we had some gelato:
Then we walked the 294 steps up the leaning tower. It really felt like we were leaning as we were climbing.
One of my most favorite things about Italy, next to the food, the beautiful architecture and the shopping is the people-watching. The people are so attractive and have a great sense of style.
I especially love watching them riding around everywhere on their bikes. It doesn't seem to cramp their style at all.
I was always happy when Mike was with me; ESPECIALLY for his awesome map-reading skills. Yes, he has some good skills.
When we got back to Florence we thought we needed some more gelato since the Pisa gelato was probably digested by now, so we went to one of the top 5 Gelato places listed in my guide book: Grom. We were not disappointed.
On day 3 Mike was free in the morning so we rushed over to the Duomo, the famous dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi.
While I was waiting in line Mike grabbed a morning gelato:
We really enjoyed the climb up the 463 steps to get an amazing look at the city.
It took 11 years for 2 artists to paint the ceiling: it really was beautiful.
Mike was goofing around on the steps up to the top of the Duomo:
He had to go to work after the Duomo climb so I set out on my own to explore the leather market and more of beautiful Firenze:
This ring was in the Tiffany's window...loved how it was displayed on gelato:
This is one of my favorite stores in Singapore so I had to make a stop inside to find something for my girls.
I found a hand painted Italian nativity set that I bought from these cute nuns at a Christian store near the Duomo. They were so sweet and I was taken back a bit to high school days. (These nuns were nicer than the ones I had for teachers though.)
I managed to find one more of the gelato stores on my top 5 list:
Mike and I met back up later that night for a wine tasting event with his colleagues, followed by dinner. Since Mike and I don't drink vino we just focused on the food; however, when we found out that the yummy bread we were eating was spread with lard we lost some interest in the wine tasting event.
Today Mike had meetings from 9-6 so I booked myself a shopping tour. I took a bus ride about 45 min's outside of Florence. I got very homesick for my kids this day and spent the bus ride back to Florence writing down everything I love about each one of them...and Mike too.
Mike and I got a recommendation from our hotel for a trattoria to eat at for dinner. The name was Il Profeta. This was the "eating experience" in Florence that I'd been waiting for. The head waiter was a charming man who had a great sense of humor, his also charming wife was a waitress there too. The ambiance was perfecto!
At the head waiter's recommendation we had bruschetta, smothered in one of the finest olive oils in all of Italy:
Then we had this sample plate of all of these amazing things wrapped in zucchini leaves:
Next we shared the house pasta, otherwise known as John Travolta pasta, in an orange sauce that was delicious. I'm sorry that I don't have a photo. I was so engrossed in how good it was that I forgot to take a picture!
Then, we each had seafood risotto which was fabulous, but we were so full at that point that we could hardly eat much of it.
Then, when we didn't think we could eat any more, our waiter sent out to us their tiramisu to have, on the house. Mama mia! It was a taste of Tuscan cooking at it's finest.
To top off the night Mike and I walked over to the Ponte Vecchio with a lock with "Mike + Becky" written on it in black sharpie. We were fully prepared to lock up our love on the Ponte Vecchio and throw the key into the river, according to the Florentine legend that if we do this, our love will last forever. However, our plan was foiled when we arrived at the Ponte Vecchio and saw a huge sign telling us that polluting the bridge with a lock is against the law. Also, there was a security guard sitting on the bridge watching all the lovers every move to make sure that no one dared to lock up anything.
Some lovers have dared to put their lock at the end of the bridge like this:
However, Mike and I decided to find our own bridge to "lock up our love."
This bridge was closer to our hotel, a few bridges down from the Vonte Vecchio. I couldn't help letting out a giggle every time I walked past our lock for the rest of our trip.
To Be Continued...
