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.

We decided to test out the train system in Italy by going to Pisa without much planning. After we took the bus down to the Santa Maria novella station, we were in Pisa about an hour and a half later. Man, I wish the United States had trains like the Italian system.

The day started a little rough for Tish. When we were at the train station, she got ill. She said she wanted to go on (she is a badass), so we decided to continue on the way to Pisa. Pisa itself was well, Pisa. The main attraction was about a 15 minute walk from the train station. We saw a fairly nice-looking cathedral and a fairly poorly built tower and then we decided to grab lunch. I would say more about it but that is about all I have.

Lunch was at least out of the sun and was okay and then we decided to walk through the botanical gardens, which quite frankly was a highlight of the trip. Anyone who goes to Pisa should be mandated to go to the botanical gardens, but then they would be too busy. Wait, that's a horrible idea. No one who goes to Pisa should go to the botanical gardens except us.

The botanical gardens had a lot of shade and some really interesting plant life and a weird little mural that you stuck your head into and did a 360 and could see a seagull's view of Pisa. And most important of all, the botanical garden had lizards!!! Then we walked back to the train station hopped on the train and we're back in Florence by 4:00.

We started the day at the Accademia Gallery to look at the Michelangelo's David. We were very happy we had reserved tickets as even at 9:00 in the morning. The line for unreserved viewing stretched all the way down the block and through the plaza seeing the David was incredible. The bronze and Sioux Falls doesn't do it justice. Just as impressive where the unfinished Michelangelo's that stretched the hallway. The gallery also had some fascinating plaster statues from the 17 and 1800s and a lot of pre-renaissance altar pieces. One that looked very much like a posters for a movie that could be titled "Jesus Christ, the Reckoning".

Continuing on the sculpture kick we decided to go to a museum called the Bargello. It is a former police station, and it was one of the best sculpture museum I have ever seen. When you walk inside you are greeted by no more than three different Davids one by Michelangelo and two by Donatello and some "minor" Michelangelo pieces. If there can even be a minor Michelangelo piece. We finished the museum by running up and seeing the collection of armor on the third floor. The building was a former police station and was really fun to see how they built those buildings back in the 14th and 15th centuries.

We started the day with a climb of the Duomo as early as we could to beat the heat, unfortunately, it was still too much for Tish. She felt a little sick at the top but she made it through like a trooper and we were treated to wonderful views of the entirety of Florence. We also got a great view of the frescos on the interior of the dome of the eviscerated people in hell and the angels kind of looking down on them smugly, which was a bit creepy. We also met some very nice people from Scottland that agreed it was too hot as we stood to rest for a bit. It was really neat to climb on 600-year-old stairs to get to the top of the duomo.

After getting down from the Duomo we decided to go to the Duomo Museum. It is one of the best museums I have seen. It has several of the original statues from the around Florence and has the original Duomo Baptistry doors from Lorenzo Ghibert. It also had an unfinished pieta from Michelangelo and it has the Donatello's Mary Magdalene which we were not expecting. Seeing the Mary Magdalene almost brought tears to Bridget's eyes. Starting a strange trend, there was no line for this awesome museum, but the line to just go into the church at the Duomo wrapped around the giant cathedral.

After the museum, Tish surprised us both by saying she wanted pasta as she does not like noodles. The restaurant had some of the best pasta we have ever had. Tish had a fettuccine with cheese and an obscene amount of truffles graded on top. Bridget had gnocchi with a ragu sauce and a big dollop of cheese in the middle and I had a wild boar pasta which I would put up against any pulled pork anywhere in America. We then went back to the VRBO and hid from the afternoon heat and napped.

11:45 AM (Mountain) July 12th to 7:00 PM (Central Europe)

We started the day by having a one-hour delay because our plane hit a bird. The bird was very much harmed, but our plane was not, so we were then on our way.

During our layover in Minneapolis, we enjoyed a pretzel and Bridget made friends with some nice French kids who had squishy cupcakes. One of the kids was very proud that she talked in English to Bridget. And then when we boarded the plane and hour later, we found that that same family was sitting directly behind us for the 8-hour trip to Amsterdam. The flight included vegetarian meals for both Bridget and Tish which were surprisingly delicious. The vegetarian breakfast not so much.

After the flight to Amsterdam during which Tish's computer screen decided to call the flight attendant three times by itself. We arrived at Schiphol airport and had 7-hour layover.

After eating some delicious Dutch pancakes with jam and getting some well-deserved coffee and tea, we walked through the airport. We saw a nice little library and a pleasant little museum put on by the Rijksmuseum. We even found Molly's new favorite store.

Molly's new favorite store

Then we found some benches and got an hour nap before trying to find our plane. Due to construction our flight to Florence started with a bus ride which was unexpected.

After more than 24 hours of transit, we finally arrived in Florence. The Florence airport was not the most modern airport I've ever flown into, but it was nice to finally end the trip. Take a taxi to our VRBO and settle into our Italian vacation.

The VRBO is a charming little one bedroom with a loft apartment and we celebrated our completion of the day by eating some bat pizza at a local pizzeria. Tish has insisted I clarify that the pizza did not have any bats as ingredients. The restaurant’s name meant bat in Italian. We had a lovely eggplant, parmesan and a wonderful multiple vegetable vegetarian pizza.