Today we took our time in the morning – we really are enjoying this hotel. The beds are great, the room is nice, the view is wonderful and the breakfast was great! We had reservations for a golf cart tour of Florence at 1130, so that was the first thing we did. We headed out a bit early to make sure we found the place.
Our guide got there right at 1130 and we headed out. Ive been to Florence a couple times, but Ive never seen it by golf cart. We stopped by a couple churches the Santa Trinita (this was moms first church and it was cool to see her reaction) and Basilica Santa Maria Novella before heading across the river to see the Pitti palace, Ponte Vechio, the Vasari Corridor, and the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangelo. The Piazzale Michelangelo was the place on my list to go this trip because I had never been and it is the “post card picture” of Florence that everyone sees.
Ponte Vecchio 
Original city walls 
We passed back over the river to see the library and Basilica di S. Croce – this is where Machiavelli, Galileo and Michelangelo are buried. Our tour ended back where we started. We tipped Simone and headed back to our hotel to drop off some things before heading out to Basilica di S. Croce to go check out the tombs and head towards our pasta making class.
You have to show your green pass to get into the Basilica (or in our case our vaccination cards). After you pass that, then you can pay to enter. We bought our tickets and started walking around the huge cathedral. We found Machiavelli, Michelangelo and Galileo. It was pretty cool. They had a whole bunch of people there, not that I know who any of them are haha!
Flood lines 
After the church we saw a street vendor selling scarves and mom wanted to check them out. She ended up finding a checkered multicolored one she liked, so we picked it up and headed toward our cooking class. We crossed the Ponte Vecchio bridge so mom could take a look at some gold and silver shops – but didnt find anything she had to have. On the other side of the bridge we stopped for some gelato and people watching. After a bit we kept walking and window shopping our way to our pasta making class.
Mom was pretty tired and not so much looking forward to the class because she was also hungry. I was too. We thought we were going to be the only ones, but all of a sudden 10 other people came from no where and boom, 12 of us in the class. Our class was awesome! Valentina was our instructor and she was just AMAZING. She had such a sense of humor and was a good teacher. She made us all separate from our groups so we could get to know others and it was such a great idea.
We made ravioli, some sort of other stuffed pasta and a noodle. The ravioli was the best, ricotta with truffle oil was the stuffing and it was cooked with butter and sage. They plated all 3 pastas on one plate – it was just divine. I hate all the noodles first, I dont like red sauce much. But the stuffed pasta with nutmeg and ricotta wasnt as great. They also served house wine – I had a sip. Wine just hurts haha!
We were given dessert too, basically like a flourless cake with cookies in it – so yummy. We chatted with some of the other travelers, all Americans in some form or the other – we all enjoyed our time there!
After dinner we headed home to crash. Eating is hard work!
Normal Travel Girl 
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