last thursday was a public holiday and so I took vacation on friday and monday and travelled to Florence with a friend of mine. She has already been there once but for me it was new. I've been in Venice once but that sums my Italy experiences up already.
First I had doubts about the weather and temperature in november but it was more than perfect. We had 18-20 degrees and sunshine all the time and the vacation was a perfect mixture of hiking in the beautiful landscape of the Toscana and gazing the art and architecture in Florence. We had only a few days and that is actually not enough to see everything but here is what we saw besides our hiking tours:

• Florence Oldtown incl. Cathedral, Ponte Vocchio, Santa Maria Novella, ...
• Giardino di Boboli which is an extremely beautiful and huge garden in Florence
• Gallery Uffizi (tons of sculptures and oil paintings)
• the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinchi in Vinchi (about 30 minutes away from Florence via train)
• Leonardo da Vinchi museum in Vinchi (30 minutes by feet from his birthplace)
• Fiesole Musei an archeological excavation in Fiesole (about 20 minutes by bus from Florence)