Lisa and Lam

Italy

8/23 - Day One
Depart San Francisco
The beginning of the trip started off kind of rocky. We showed up at the airport only to find out that our flight was delayed six hours. Six hours! We spent the time goofing off by taking pictures and people watching. All in all it wasn't too bad.
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8/24 - Day Two
Arrive in Frankfurt, arrive in Florence around 1:00pm
The flight to Frankfurt was long - 10 hours, but I slept most of the time. We ended up getting lucky and moved our seats to the exit row. I ended up next to an Italian woman who just spent her time in California on booze cruises with twenty year olds. She was a very typical vision of an Italian woman. It was nice to get a glimpse of what was to come.

We arrived in Florence a little late, but all of our luggage showed up (which is always a plus). We hailed a taxi and I promptly mispronounced the name of the hotel. The first impression of driving in Florence was "Holy Crap! I am going to have to do this in five days?"

After the taxi ride we checked into our hotel. The room was unexpected. It had two double beds that we ended up pushing together and a bathroom the size of our laundry room (read: tiny). The really cool thing about the hotel (besides being really close to everything) was the rooftop garden down the hall from our room.

After settling into the room, Lam and I ventured out to the market. We ended up walking around window shopping and then finished off the evening at a restaurant right outside of the market. This was our first taste of Tuscan food. We ordered a cheese and salumi platter, Lam had grilled pork and I ordered my first pasta dish. Of course we had to stop for gelato before heading back to the hotel. This started our love affair with gelato.

8/25 - Day Three
Florence - Tour the City
Staying at Hotel Cellai

8/26 - Day Four
Florence - Visit the Accademia

8/27 - Day Five
Florence - Visit the Uffizi Gallery and Courtyard

8/28 - Day Six
Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens
Day trip to Fiesole

8/29 - Day Seven
Leisurely drive to Frances Lodge near Sienna

8/30 - Day Eight
Day trip to Siena

8/31 - Day Nine
Day trip to San Gimignano

9/1 - Day Ten
Leisurely drive to Lucca
Staying at La Boheme

9/2 - Day 11
Drive to Florence and hop on a plane home