Friends 'n Florence

Sometimes one of the best ways to see a city is to wander and get lost. That's exactly what Smithers and I did on our next stop, Florence! Right in the heart of Tuscany and surrounded by rolling hills and ancient villages, Florence was a pretty easy choice to add to our agenda :). We got in a bit later in the evening and stayed at a pretty sweet hostel...they had an onsite bar, restaurant, club, pool, sauna, turkish bath and a roof terrace with 360-degree views over the rooftops. That night we took advantage of the turkish bath and enjoyed our cool little hostel, ultimately capping off the night sharing bottles of wine with fellow hostel-goers on the roof terrace. 

The next morning we skipped grabbing a map on the way out and decided to get lost instead. We were rewarded with cozy street markets and gelato popsicles but wanted to hurry back to the hostel to catch the sunset from the hostel's roof terrace. Again, we popped open some wine with fellow hostellers and enjoyed the crisp view over Florence. One of these hostellers was a Floridian-born bartender from the Cayman Islands--Zach--who was traveling around the world solo for 1 year--awesome. We met Zach on the first night in the turkish steambath...as always, Smitty and I were chatting up a storm of hilarities and yep there was someone else behind that steam too: Zach the World Traveler. World travelers will always get major cool points in my book, all types of travelers for that matter. We're pretty sure he thought we were crazy but the three of us became travel buddies for a few days...its crazy how traveling can form friendships so quickly. We had a day of barhopping in Florence under our belts but our new friend Zach decided to buy a plane ticket and join us to our next destination: Sicily! Spontaneity is the best! :)

{Zach joins our travelin' posse!}