Monday August 21

After a quick hotel breakfast, we drove to the Duomo of Siena. Google maps took us out of the way, so a 5 minute drive took 20+, but we managed to find parking! It was a bit scary, as we were driving inside the walls of the city, and there were places that had traffic lights because two cars couldn't fit through the road and had to take turns going one direction or the other! We walked to the duomo, checked out the cathedral with all the black and white marbling and patterning and walked to Antica Trattoria Papei for lunch. I had ravioli, and Mike had a linguini type pasta with rabbit ragù. We also had an incredible cake with a lemon custard filling that was so delicious! We drove the scenic route to Florence, which was really interesting! We drove through forests, small towns, and hillsides, and eventually ended up in Florence. We tried to drive the car to the hotel, but there were too many road closures and areas that we weren't allowed to drive in unless we were residents, so we ended up just taking the car back to the rental car place, and then checked into Hotel Berna, the only 2 star hotel we booked for the trip. We walked around the city, checked out the fake David and some cathedral doors and sat by the Ponte Vecchio. We also went shopping in the Italian H&M and Zara. I had a great pasta with creamy pesto for dinner (made up for the previous night's disaster), and Mike had steak, and we went to an Irish bar.

This purse cost like 500 euro! It was ridiculous.