Day 4-Florence, Italy

Although today we were heading to Florence we had one final morning stop…the Swiss Alps of course! We began our way to the top on a vertical railroad. We even had an extra traveler with us, a dog, who was brought along by some hikers. At the end of the line, gondola cable cars were waiting to take us the rest of the way up. At the top the views were amazing. There was a platform that hung out over the valley, so we checked out the mountains and it was the perfect place for group photo-op. After some more pictures and a little souvenir shopping we headed down the mountain to start our drive to Florence.

As we approached Florence in the afternoon Ryan gave us all maps of the city to show us where the highlights were, like the David and the Duomo. Florence is a tiny city with skinny streets so it’s not exactly made to have a Contiki coach driving through, so because of this we stay just outside the city limits. Contiki had dinner set up for us tonight so we headed straight to the hotel to get ready for a night out in a new city. Dinner was in a restaurant that reminded me of an underground wine cellar. As my first Italian meal of the trip the food was great, but it just kept coming and coming. There was salad, then trays of pasta, ravioli, and meats. To finish off dinner and get the night started Ryan and Andy got us Limoncello, a dessert shot which was really delicious.

Those of us, who wanted to stay out, went to a place called the Red Garter. There were other Contiki tours hanging out there too, so we got to mix it up with even more travelers. Tonight was a really chill night and a lot of fun, we had some drinks, danced, and there was even karaoke. The guy working karaoke was hogging the mic, but James and some of the girls were able to sneak in some Spice Girls, great throwback. A group of us then headed back to the hotel. **Travel Tip: arrange with your roommate who will have the key, if you don’t both have one, my roommate and I got confused and ended up not realizing who had the key; if possible leave the key at the front desk and whoever gets back first can pick it up.**

Tomorrow morning we have an included walking city tour with a professional guide. Ryan has been an amazing tour guide so far, but in Italy you have to be a professional guide in order to do tours. Time to get some sleep, tomorrow is going to be a day of exploring Florence!