Viaggio Musicale 2013: Tuscany & Florence

Hello gorgeous green countryside with sprawling vineyards and amazing clean foresty scent! We have arrived in Tuscany! We are staying in a beautiful villa in the picturesque Tuscany countryside. It is dreamlike. It felt like I was in a fairy tale story book! sigh. I just cannot believe we are in such a glorious place!! While we are staying in the villa, we made day trips to Florence, Luca and Pisa so far (we will be going to Sienna soon). Florence is a bustling city full of tourists, locals, and millions of cobblestones! We visited Pitti Palace which was large and full of historic artwork and extensive gardens. We climbed all the way to the top of the gardens to a breathtaking view of the whole city of Florence. It was then time for museums! (because it was yet again raining...) On our way we came across some wonderful musicians playing in a square and the violinist was so hilarious! Sooo I may or may not have proposed to him in my weak and broken Italian...HA! He just laughed at the silly American girl proposing to a stranger in the rain. Then it was museum time! I went through the Uffizi Museum and saw the famous Birth of Venus painting (gorgeous) as well as Botticelli's painting entitled Primavera. They were both very beautiful in person. The group I was with then went to the outdoor market to shop!! It was HUGE and filled with yummy leather bags, purses, shoes, & wallets; as well as jewelry and silk/cashmere scarves! It was shopping heaven on one long street...sigh...It was fun shopping there with my girl friends : ) Other days in Florence we visited other museums, went through the beautiful Duomo church, and we even went to the Basilica of Santa Croce where Galileo, Michelangelo and Rossini. What an amazing opportunity moment! Three amazing men in their resting place in my eye's view. I loved it. The last day in Florence was a small group of us who traveled by train to get into the city to go see Michelangelo's David. It was much more majestic than I ever imagined. He was also a lot bigger than I expected. It was flawless and so detailed to the point where David's veins were sculpted in his feet and hands along with tendons. It was incredible and well worth the travel time. Florence was beautiful and I will go back there someday.

On day 9 we took a day trip to Luca which is such a charming little city! It has an original stone wall that surrounds the entire city and we had the AMAZING opportunity to ride rented bicycles and ride around the city wall!!! It was so incredibly fun! I could not believe what I was doing....I was riding a bicycle on an old city wall under the sun in Italy...I am still trying to comprehend it. After Luca, we traveled to Pisa and climbed the leaning tower of Pisa! We all made it up to the top even though the stairs were marble and had been worn down so they were slippery and it was a lot higher than it looked so there were more stairs than expected! But it was indeed worth the climb. After Pisa, some of us went to the coast of the Meditteranean Sea and ate seafood at a local restaurant. It was good! And of course the company I was with was perfect to make the perfect day even better. <3