and I know it's gonna be a lovely day, lovely day

My photo. The real thing.

Getting to return to Florence was a gift. Although my husband had trouble finding reverse the following morning in the rental car, we were able to drive away from our Italian homestead for the night because I got out of the car and pushed us out of our parking spot. (Strong Polish woman, thank you very much.) We dropped the car off at the rental place and walked towards the center of town - truly all set with any form of transportation, aside from our legs. We found a beautiful hotel, checked in, and began our unexpected adventure. We took the recommendation of a friend and had lunch at a very Italian restaurant - very, very minimal English. It was a little bit of a struggle at first, but we made due. The entire restaurant smelled of truffles - there were literally truffles everywhere in Florence - it was amazing. We were able to put down a few courses, so we knew by this time our stomachs were growing larger - thank goodness. 

The Uffizi art museum was on my husband's wishlist of places to see, so we walked towards it, hoping to get our bearings for the next morning. Most attractions in Italy sell tickets and if you have a ticket you can skip by all of the people waiting in line - highly recommended. We didn't buy Uffizi tickets in advance because it wasn't part of our tour that took place the day before and we didn't know we would be back, so we planned to wake up early the next morning and be first in line. To our surprise and delight, there was no line, so we walked right in and toured the museum two hours before it closed - very pleasant surprise and the museum wasn't crowded at all. My favorite paintings were Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Rosso Fiorentino's Musical Cherub. Dinner that evening was in yet another restaurant that smelled only of truffles and we feasted on a raw artichoke salad with olive oil and lemon and a Tuscan steak - one of the best meals we had, if not THE best. We found a little rock bar after dinner and I was able to drink a beloved White Russian - the only place on the entire trip that offered them. (Italian's pretty much drink wine, beer, grappa, limoncello, and straight liquor.) Our day could not have been anymore lovely. We rose the following day and were thrilled to be taking a high-speed train back to Rome to celebrate Christmas Eve with the family.