Day 5 Florence: Boboli Gardens then Rome

This was our last day in Florence. What a great way to start the trip. Our train did not depart until 2:00 pm, so we had time in the morning to stroll through the Boboli Gardens which was included with our Uffizi passport. The gardens are huge. We walked all the way around the exterior of the gardens. It was really neat to see the Pitti Palace from the back that had several different areas of the garden, including a cypress lane, the lemon house and the coffee house. The gardens themselves were a great way to start the day with a nice long walk while enjoying some nature and avoiding the crowds.

We went back to our VRBO and said goodbye to our charming little place in Florence. Then we jumped on the bus and headed for the Santa Maria novella train station where we stored our luggage for a while and then went back and had the most amazing lunch in the market area of the central market. We had vegetable lasagna and a spinach cannelloni and some couscous and it was fun to eat in an actual busy Italian market.

After that we boarded our business class, yes we fancy, seats and rode to the Rome Termini Train Station. Once again, the trains were just incredible. I've never traveled 130 plus miles an hour on a train before or on land before for that matter, so the trip lasted only 90 minutes. We took a cab to our VRBO where we were a little surprised by what we found. It wasn't bad but, it did need some updating. It looked very much like a set from a Hercule Poirot movie. The host was very nice though, and she left us some snacks. The location was a 20-minute bus ride to all of the sites of Rome and it was close to several groceries stores and restaurants.