Winging it in Florence

You may not be surprised, but it's not like me to be too unprepared. Today, July 4th, we arrived in Florence, Italy around 10:30 am with 20lb backpacks and no place to stay. So, we found the Internet cafe in the train station and I got to work!

Yes, carrying a few week's worth of clothes and a few pairs of shoes gets tiring. And no, I didn't need to bring all those items of clothing in my bag. ;) #overpacker

I ended up booking this cute little apartment that was a little more than I wanted to spend, but definitely worth it. This place has a little kitchen, washer, internet, digital TV and internet. Plus, it's a super cute and more relaxing than a hotel.

Our last several days of vacation have been fun, but tiring. I think we have had maybe one or two nights of 7+ hrs of sleep, but hey, we are having a lot of fun and seeing a lot. 

Let me tell you, July is a crazy time to visit Europe. There are hoards of tourists, tour groups, guides, etc everywhere. Because of that, Rome really wore us out.

Tonight we stayed in for the first time on vacation and made an easy dinner of salad with bread, olive oil, balsamic and slices of tasty cheese for dinner. We also shared a bottle of chianti that was left for us by the rental company.

We are now debating whether or not to proceed to Munich and Lucerne, SZ or change up our tentative plans before the tour de france. It's hard knowing the cities we could be missing, so we'll see. One thing's for sure: I am ready to explore a bit beyond the city centers and just enjoy the moment. 

Tomorrow we are hoping to rent bikes for a few hours and see what we can find. After several days of walking 5-7 miles each, it will be nice to give the feet a rest.

Tonight after dinner we stumbled upon this band playing live music outside of another old building. Not a bad view!

Also, I feel silly to say that I just downloaded the blogger app {thanks to the manfriend's encouragement} and man is it easy to use. Just call me the resister of apps. For some reason, I have a hard time wanting to download them, but occasionally they are really helpful! Oh, technology.

On this trip I have also used City Maps 2 Go, which has allowed us to access major city maps on my phone without using wifi. I just had to download the cities beforehand when I had wireless.

Happy 4th of July to everyone who celebrated! It feels strange to be missing a major holiday, especially with no mention of it here. I've also come to appreciate home a bit more as traveling definitely broadens your horizons, but also reminds you of all that you have and where you call home.

What's your favorite handy app? Tell me what you're up to this weekend activity wise as I'm itching to get my exercise on!