Day 5 - Florence, Italy

Took another early morning train to get to Florence at a decent hour. I think I may sleep for a week when I get home...or maybe the plane home will be empty, yeah right! :) We hit the ground running as we knew this was our only opportunity to see the sights.

We did an open top bus tour and got off at the Piazza Michaelangelo at the top of the city. It provided a beautiful overlook with lots of little tourist shops and a bronze replica of David. The actual one is at a museum that was closed that day. We ran into a big group of other HP people and took a few pics in this incredible location.

We had a little time to kill before the next bus would be there, so we headed up a set of stairs and visited a very old church, founded in 1018, called the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte with a graveyard in the front and another nice panoramic view. There was also a bride and groom there taking photos. There are endless beautiful backdrops throughout Europe!

I found a kitty at the top of the hill, but you know cats...he wouldn't cooperate and look at the camera! :) And PS, what on earth is my hair doing there???

We caught the bus down the hill and walked the tourist bridge, which I was a little disappointed was all jewelry and high end stuff. I'm more of a chachke girl. :) We walked from there back through the city by the Piazza del Duomo in the center of town. Again, with beautiful mosaics, all over the entire church, but in pastels this time. There was a huge line and we had plans for have dinner that evening, so we headed to the hotel for a little R&R.

That evening, we walked the open air market and had dinner at a street side café. There we met the best waiter of the trip…at least the one with the best sense of humor! His name was Kenny G and was originally from the Dominican Republic. He messed with Jon, one of the guys from the team, rubbed his shoulders and heckled the passing tourists to get them into the restaurant. He made the night! After dinner, we turned in to prepare for 3 packed days of meetings.