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Every city in Italy has its own feel and Florence was no exception. Coming from the big city of Rome, it was nice to move on to a smaller town. Florence is very low key and relaxing. Even though there are lots of tourists, it does not feel as crazy as Rome. One thing I was surprised about was that the buildings were not colorful as a typical Italian city. In Rome, each building was painted in a shade of pink, yellow, orange and other beautiful colors. Florence’s city scape was painted in more neutral shades like browns and creams. This gave the city a gothic/renaissance feel.The Duomo.People on the streets of Florence.Lindt shop!!Street venders.We stopped by this really cute paper shop. The woman that works there showed us how they made designs on the paper they sold.The restaurant we ate at had amazing food!! It was the best meal we had in Italy!I got a tortellini dish with a pear sauce and walnuts. It was so good!Tessa ordered the dish that I almost got. It was a gnocchi dish with a pumpkin sauce. It was great as well!!And of course for dessert we got gelato! This one was number 300(not really but it seemed like it)! Seriously we ate soooo much gelato.  😉The next day we found this local market. They had great food and the people we really nice! I loved meeting the locals!I got a vegan lemon cake.More goodies.A berry cobbler.An apple strudel type dessert.More amazing food…Ponte Vecchio. (Note: I realize that I am wearing the same thing in every picture. When you backpack for two weeks, you don’t have many options in clothing.)Street venders on Ponte Vecchio.Locks of love, I saw them in every city in Italy. Lovers bind their amore by fastening locks onto railings.So my big adventure was this baby, my spider bite. I was bit in Rome and it swelled up like a ballon. The worst two days were in Florence. Both mornings I woke up and could hardly walk on my ankle because it was so stiff. I know the thing to do when you have an injury is R.I.C.E-Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. But when backpacking I could not do any of them. There was no time for rest, no where in Italy did they have ice, there was no way for me to compress my ankle and elevation comes hand in hand with rest. So my ankle was left to fend for itself. Thankfully, after about 5 days the swelling went down.The view from Piazzale Michelangelo. We sat up there for about an hour and ate dinner. I was so beautiful!