Firenze!

big night out in Florence
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Florence was a great backpackers destination with enough culture, food and night life to keep us highly entertained but with the comfort of knowing that there is no public transportation to see everything we needed to see.

Archi Rossi was the excellent Hostel that was very central to everything.  We visited a couple of bars in the S.Croce area on the first night and then mistakenly visited the Uffici the next day..but still managed to enjoy it.

We took a 3 hour walking tour of the city and took in a lot of history while visiting very old cathedrals, the main Duomo and Clock Tower, The David, and the Ponte Vecchio.

good ol' David (replica in Piazza de Republica)
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We also took some time to do some shopping as the leather bags and shoes couldnt be overlooked...kind of depressing when you can neither afford it or fit anything in your backpack.

Before we left Florence, we made sure that we visited the Chianti region and what better way to do it than by bycicle.  We signed up for a bike tour around the country with a visit to the Machiavelli winery.  I think our young, Scottish tourguide named Andy was quite pleased to see that he had about 10 girls for the day...we were wined and dined...and sore the next day from all that uphill biking!