Before starting a new job in June, I had some weeks off and spent one of those in Italy. We went on a couples vacation with my boyfriend’s cousin and his girlfriend and we explored the beautiful city of Florence and the Tuscan countryside.
We went over a bank holiday weekend, so the city was filled with tourists. We had over 30° and nothing but sunshine – what a welcome from Italy! 😍
To get acclimatized, the first call of action was of course Apero. After some snacks and a cold Spritz, we were ready for exploring.
I was so happy to be able to escape everyday life for a few days and have some quality time with my loved ones before starting the next exciting chapter of my professional life.
I have been very fortunate to be able to travel quite a lot in my life already. Unfortunately, a negative side effect that comes with this luxury is that you sometimes feel unimpressed by new experiences or places that would excite other people like crazy. But luckily, this was absolutely not the case in Florence. The Duomo? A masterpiece! 🤩
We basically started every single day in the same way – with a coffee. We tried different cafés and eventually found our favorite spot that we kept coming back to for reliably good coffee. It is called Ditta Artigianale, they have multiple locations across the city and one was very close to our apartment, so this was our breakfast spot of choice.
Of course, we couldn’t miss out on probably the world’s most famous sandwiches at All’Antico Vinaio. From all the different ones we tried, I believe “The Summer” was my favorite. It’s a classic foccaccia sandwich with prosciutto, fior di latte mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, and basil. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. 😍
We were all really excited about visiting the Uffizi Gallery, one of the most visited art galleries in the world. We only spent about 2 hours inside. Maybe we just weren’t feeling it that day or maybe our expectations were too high but unfortunately, we were all a bit underwhelmed. While we are still happy to have been there, we probably wouldn’t visit again.
After some time inside the Galleries, we grabbed some takeaway Pizzas and walked our way up to Piazzale Michelangelo, from where you can overlook the entire city and experience the most beautiful sunsets. What a night! There was live music, people were dancing, drinking wine, and watching the sun set over the Arno river. A moment in which I wanted to stop time, just to enjoy it for a little bit longer.
We had spent some time in the city now, so we decided to leave the heat and the thousands of tourists behind and drive into the countryside for a day. We rented two vespas and WOW I really didn’t expect to have so much fun. It was our first time riding a vespa, so I was a little bit nervous about it but it turned out there was absolutely no reason for that at all – we had the best time!
Another thing that really surprised me was how easy it was to reach the most beautiful wineries just outside of the city. We drove for less than 45 minutes and were in the middle of seemingly endless Tuscan hills and one vineyard followed the other. We stopped at Ruffino Winery, in the Chianti region. Even though it was privatized for a wedding, we were able to sit down, enjoy a cold bottle of Rosé and dream of maybe hosting a wedding at a similar place one day… It was so dreamy, we all agreed that is was our favorite moment of the entire trip! 😊
Back in the city, we had a rather chilled final day. Again, filled with good food and lots of Aperol Spritz. In the evening, we went for a sunset walk and said goodbye to the Arno river 🧡
The location of our apartment was amazing, there were countless cafés, restaurants, and wine bars just down the street. So, before going to bed, we stopped for a final glass of wine, talked through everything we had experienced in the past few days and agreed that we definitely needed to go on another vacation together soon! 💕
Jessica Schütze 
Leave a comment