Florence 2011: A Weekend Excursion

Sorry this is so late! I wanted to put this up last night but after a long trip home I came back to find that my internet had expired. Every 30 days we have to get a new code and since it was Sunday, we could not get a new one until this morning. So this weekend I was in Palermo, Italy. Which is located at the very bottom of the boot, near the toe and it is the island that is connected right near the toe of Italy. It was surrounded by beautiful mountains and the sea. How much more perfect can you get?! We left around 7am on Friday morning to take a train to Pisa and then took a shuttle train for 10 minutes to the Pisa airport. Thankfully my suitcase was under 10kg=22lbs. Thank goodness! As soon as we got there I got us a little lost trying to find the Bed and Breakfast. Whoops! We finally made it there after two hours of getting from the airport to hostel. We put our stuff down and ventured out to see what we could find. I took 740 pictures but I can only put a few up on this blog because it took 5 hours to get these ones on. So hopefully I can add some more tomorrow when I have better internet so keep checking back every so often to see if I have added anymore.

This was the best meal I have had in a really long time. It is ravioli stuffed with crab meat and a creamy salmon sauce over it. I thought I died and went to heaven. I could eat this at least once a week. It was so nice to finally have had some seafood since my diet here has not included any of it since I do not know what any of the signs say for what things are here.

Emily and I underneath a vine like archway outside of the central station where you could catch a bus or a train to just about anywhere. It was so pretty I could not resist.

Don't you just feel like you are in a tropical place. Similar to Morocco and Florida all at the same time. This was inside the botanical gardens that we visited on our second day in Palermo, which would be Saturday. It was one of the prettiest days we could have had to walk across the entire city.

This is the fantastic sea and the water splashing up against the rocks. I wish I could have been on a boat in this water but I could definitely not afford that.

This is the Church of S. Francesco D'Assisi. A very famous church and important in the culture of Italy. It was huge inside with high ceilings, and you did not have to pay to enter. EVEN BETTER!

I forget what church this is, I need to do some more research looking back on what exactly I saw. There were so many places that we looked at and viewed that it is hard to not confuse them. Very Moroccan as a way to describe what type of structure this is.

This is me in front of the sea, enjoying the fact that I was in short sleeves and by the water. Two of my favorite things.

This is the bed that I slept in within the bed and breakfast. Me and Emily shared a bed. I had asked for a three bed bedroom and we got one large bed and a small single bed that Bria slept on. No big deal though and totally worth the cost.

This is our desk and mini fridge. Great for storing our wine :)

This is right outside of our room in the small hallway adjacent to main hallway with the front desk. Gorgeous chandelier and floor. The furniture too was very impressive.

This is the main hallway looking towards the door which was where the other rooms were, bathrooms, and breakfast room.

This is the breakfast room. The bed and breakfast was very small so there were no more than 5 people sitting out here at a time. We had chocolate croissants, orange juice, cappuccinos and some toast. DELICIOUS.

This is the hallway down towards the bathrooms. One is the door on the left and the other is straight ahead. Such a clean and lovely place to have stayed.

This is the front desk and the main reception area.

THIS IS OUR ROOM :) Number 2.

Sunset near the mountains and the other part of Palermo. So gorgeous. We did not get to see much of the sunset because it set on the opposite side of the island, but we did get some pretty pictures and views.

This is Santa Anna. A gorgeous Moroccan style in the center of the city off of the street that we stayed on. We were centrally located and it was perfect.

This is one of the entrances to the street we lived on, Via Roma. It is outside of the central station and there is a roundabout that has these rounded buildings surrounding I think 3 of the streets.

After we left the ocean we found the entrance to a garden. This is the archway that lets you into the garden. It is a beautiful park that has lots of structures and monuments inside.

Surrounding the paths along the water are these really cool little chess piece looking things. They are multi colored and go along the entire coastline.

Inside the park we found lots of little turtles just hanging out catching some rays from the sun!

This is inside the Cathedral down the corridor. The circles on the ceiling are the windows opening up.

Sunset along the water. So beautiful.

Horses and carriages. I wanted a ride but they are very expensive. But the one in the back is HUGE, and the one in the front was an itty bitty pony. So cute.

This is the Teatro (theater) that we randomly came upon. They have lots of orchestra concerts and ballets.

Some pretty flowers in the gardens.

This is outside of the Catacombs. This was by far the creepiest thing I have ever experienced. I held onto Emily the entire time. But what an experience