Whilst au pairing in Milan, whenever I had a few days off in a row I tried to travel to a new Italian city. Florence was the city I was most desperate to go to, therefore it was the first place I went. Florence is absolutely beautiful and I didn’t want to leave. The architecture all over the city is fascinating, especially the Cathedral, which was unlike any I had seen before. I was only in Florence for 12 hours, so I spent my time walking around, rather than going inside attractions, however I did go inside ‘Cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore’ because of how beautiful it is on the outside, and also because I try to visit every city’s Cathedral. Visiting the Cathedral is definitely worth it, however I didn’t think it was as pretty inside as it is outside, I also felt there was a lot of space with nothing to fill it. Whilst walking around I saw the Ponte Vecchio, however I didn’t cross the actual bridge as it was so busy and I felt that seeing it was plenty. I also had to go see the ‘David’ sculpture at Galleria Dell’Accademia, which was pretty cool! After I had walked around most of the city and visited majority of the squares, I walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo for sunset. After walking around all day I was pretty tired and it’s a fairly long walk to the top (or maybe it felt so long because my feet ached) but once you get to the top, the incredible views make the aching feet all worth it! It was absolutely beautiful, you could see for miles over the whole city, it was probably my favourite part of my time in Florence.

I stayed in Hostel Santa Monica on the other side of the river, but it was still just a short walk to the centre, it was a really good price and whilst the rooms weren’t luxury, they were nice enough for a nights stay. The only downside to the stay was how hot the room was at night, there was no air-conditioning, only 1 fan for 6 people, so you can imagine how hot that room was in mid July, I made a couple friends in my dorm, so that made laughing about the heat a little easier!