Duomo, Gelato, Pasta Pasta Pasta!

It seems (knock on wood) that Kolbjorn was right, and that my bad travel luck was all used up on my first day in Norway! The strike ended late last night so Oslo airport was much easier and less stressful to navigate. Torill also took me in and helped me with my luggage and talking to the various people about where I was supposed to be and stuff, which helped. Then my luggage was a little bit overweight but they didn’t even say anything about it! Score! We had gotten to the airport three hours early just in case there were still effects from the strike, so I just wandered around the airport until my gate was assigned, took a seat, and relaxed until my flight! Nice to have such an easy time for a change!

Soon I was with Aunt Janece in Munich and we were on our way to Florence! When we landed, the luck turned around a little bit when we realized that her luggage had been lost. I don't know what is wrong with this trip! I have never lost a bag before, and now all of a sudden it's a common occurrence! But, once we had sorted that, we were on our way into the center of Florence and our Italy adventures!

We were both starving since we had been trying to save our appetites for Italy and not eat airport food, so our first stop was for lunch! I got grilled vegetables which were so delicious, and Janece got crostini! And we of course also had to try some wine :)

After our lunch break we toured the Duomo and the Duomo Museum! We got quite lucky, it started to rain so everyone ran away from the line to the Duomo to the cafes, so Janece and I just walked right in, no problem! It was really awesome! There was also no line at all to the Duomo museum, so we spent no time waiting for any of today's attractions except for our next stop - gelato!

We enjoyed our gelato in front of the Duomo, and Janece pointed out how you could watch the birds flying around the dome to be able to get a feeling for how huge it was. Really huge!

We decided to spend the time before dinner walking around and getting a feel for the city. We were so surprised at how close everything was...we actually overshot multiple times! So we stopped by the palazzo de la republica, palazzo vecchio, ponte vecchio were we oohed and ahhed over the gorgeous jewelry! And then we slowly made our way to dinner!

I felt it was important to order some sort of pasta dish, and it was really good! The noodles tasted so fresh, and it made a huge difference!

Janece ordered pork which she was also very pleased with, and her potatoes were to die for! SO flavorful! I think maybe our favorite part of the dinner was the wine though...we got their house red, and it was really smooth. I think the most used words in Italy are going to be "gorgeous" and "delicious". That could have summed up our day right there!

Tomorrow we will be going to the Uffizi gallery, back to Ponte Vecchio to do some more window (or real) shopping, and over to the leather school to continue the raid on our wallets. Then after that, we will go to Pitti Palace, and end at the highly recommended Gusta Pizza nearby. I can't wait for another wonderful day in Italy! I am so lucky to be in this beautiful place with such a fun aunt!

Ciao Ciao!