It has been a dream of mine to visit Florence since high school.

We had an Italian exchange program that was highly competitive and I wasn’t chosen. I ended up going to Guadalajara instead, and it was AMAZING. No regrets. But I have never forgotten about Florence.

So, as part of our “glimpse of Italy” adventure (so named because we knew we’d have extremely limited time in each location), Florence naturally made the list.

It was an easy train ride from Lesa to Florence, and we LOVED the train experience. I wish we had a better train system in the U.S.

We only had an afternoon and evening to spend there, which wasn’t enough time, but it was enough to give us an idea of what the city has to offer. That’s what led to our decision to take a guided tour: we didn’t want to get lost and miss anything.

We took a three-hour walking tour, led by a local guide, and we learned so much about the history, the culture, and the people. We were able to see the highlights of Florence with ease.

We then ate dinner on the square at 5pm and had the entire restaurant to ourselves because Italians tend to eat later 😂It was a great way to spend our anniversary!

The next day, we flew back to Barcelona to begin the real purpose of this trip (advocacy). Because the flights were so inexpensive and less than two hours, it was worth it to go back and forth between countries to see as much as we could while in Europe.