I'm far from being a morning person. But I've grown more and more fond to experiencing cities early in the morning and escaping the hustle and bustle of busy hours of the day. Cities - especially popular tourist getaways like Florence - can be overwhelming with crowds trying to soak it all in and document every step of the way with their smartphone (which I'm unarguably also guilty of). It's impossible to really feel the city with all that noise.

But in the early hours of the day, cities - like their visitors - sleep. They're slowly waking up with the first bakeries opening up, waiters cleaning windows and setting the tables on their terraces, locals rushing to work.

I started the habit of getting up at 6 am (the earlier the better, but as I said - unfortunately I'm not a morning bird and there is a limited list of things that get me out of bed at such ungodly hours) on my trip to Verona (which is coming on the blog soon, so stay tuned!). Rather than an objective, it was a consequence of being very short on time, so my friend and I decided to use the morning to see as much of Verona as we could. It was soul-filling to say the least and I decided to keep the habit every time I'm in a new city. And boy oh boy was I rewarded in Florence! All the major attractions, all the majestic renaissance creations were there just for me. If you ever visited Florence, you'll spot the difference when looking at the photos of these empty streets...

To be fair, you cannot do justice to this magnificent island in four days. But, hard as it may be, choices have to be made when you're limited with time as we were when we visited it a while ago. We decided to drive through majority of the island as the roads are scenic enough to make it worthwhile and we picked a few main attractions, while also stopping along the way (mainly to have wine and other local specialties, but also to marvel at the views).

So, which destinations made the cut?

Siracuse

Agrigento and Valley of the Temples 

Cefalu

Have you been to Sicily? Did we miss out on any super-cool-must-visit spots? (I'm sure we did, I'd rather not know...) (Although on the other hand, it's always good to leave something for next time, right?)

Anyway, Rome. It really is glorious. Although a bit too touristy in my opinion. Crowds of people literally everywhere, and shops, shops, shops, hotels, hotels, restaurants. All the history and magnificent monuments fade away in all that hustle and bustle. But at sundown... it regains a little bit of that old majestic spirit.

Rome is definitely worth visiting if you're a huge fan of nice views (I sure am). Here's just a sneak peek into a series of photos from Rome that I plan to post on the blog in the next few days. The weather didn't treat us very nice, it was rainy most of the time of our trip, but we enjoyed it anyway.

 I still have some photos from Tuscany to share with you!

Siena is such a charming city. I could walk around its streets for days and wouldn't get sick of it. Or just sit around Piazza del Campo, eat a delicious foccaccia and watch people go by.

If you're visiting Siena, I highly recommend a visit to the Museo Civico. Some wonderful frescos which tell a lot about the time they were made in (I love the allegory of a good and bad government), so go and take a look!  

While we were roadtripping in Tuscany, we spent a night at a fattoria, which is a typical farm in Tuscany (more like a HUGE villa with a pool and lots of estate around it). We took some time off to relax there, I'd highly recommend it to anyone who's visiting multiple cities in Tuscany. There are fattorias all around Tuscany so it's not hard to find one.

I have got A LOT of photos to share with you so I decided to break them into multiple posts. I'll try to show you as much as I can, the cities, the people, the landscape, the food.

We stayed in Florence for two nights. We rented an apartment via AirBNB.com (great choice; the hosts were a wonderful and friendly family from Florence). Just a couple of advices: if you want to visit the Uffizi Gallery, book ahead online; if you want a delicious meal on a budget, visit Trattoria Mario; if you want a short romantic getaway from the city, visit Fiesole, a village just outside of Florence (about 4 km) with a spectacular view of Florence (also, visit Piazza Michelangelo in Florence for a good panorama). Drink your coffee standing at the bar, otherwise you'll pay around 4 times the usual price (and all the Italians do it standing). Florence is the most beautiful early in the morning, when there are no crowds of tourists all over.

That's about it, if you have any other questions regarding Florence, contact me.