As you may know, on August 24th, Rachel and I headed out for a 16 day trip to Europe to celebrate 10 years of marriage bliss. Today will be the sixth part of a series of blog posts highlighting this amazing trip. (Check out part one, two, three, four, five and six here!) Without further ado…Part Seven – Cruise Excursions Florence and Cannes/Nice!

During our Disney Mediterranean Cruise (DMC),  the middle 4 days we were able to port and explore some amazing places. Today’s post covers the second half of the DMC Ports of Call/Excursions, which found us in Florence, Cannes and Nice!

FLORENCE, ITALY
The third day off the boat found us 90 minutes from Florence. We ended up on a tour with roughly 30 or so people. The plan for the day was to take about a 3 hour walking tour of Florence before having about 4+ hours to walk around on our own before heading back to the ship. As we made our way over to Florence, the tour guide shared a little of the area we were driving through, which was mainly the Tuscany area and was quite beautiful.

Once we got to Florence, we began the 3 hour walking tour with our tour guide. She was very knowledgeable of the area and hit a lot of the high points, including the Piazza della Signoria, Church of Santa Croce, Uffizi Gallery and Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower. And while we weren’t able to see the actual Statue of David, we were able to see the exact replica in the Piazza della Signoria. 

After the walking tour, Rachel and I grabbed some lunch (i.e., more pizza for Allen) and then explored a little more of the city on our own. Rachel was even able to pick up an Italian leather bag, which she was very happy about.

All in all, I enjoyed Florence very much. I wish we had had more time to see all that the city has to offer. Plus, I hear Florence at night is quite magical. This is a city I think we both would like to visit again in the future.

CANNES/NICE, FRANCE
For our last day off the boat, we ended up in Cannes, France, where we ended up taking a private tour over to Nice for the morning. We decided to do a shorter tour for our last day so we could explore Cannes after the tour before calling it a little earlier after 4 busy days.

Our tour guide ended up being a wonderful gentleman by the name of Nicolas. Nicolas drove us over to Nice, which was only about 20 minutes away. Friends, Nice is one of the most beautiful beach towns I’ve ever seen. And because we had our own driver/tour guide, we were able to have a truly personal and wonderful experience exploring Nice. Honestly, I could have spent several more hours seeing everything the city had to offer.

Once we got back over to Cannes, we bid farewell to Nicolas before making our way to find some lunch. Once we grabbed a bite to eat, we walked around Cannes for a few hours, which itself is quite a beautiful beach city. The biggest thing we both noticed was how busy and crowded Cannes and even Nice were. These are definitely both tourist cities for sure!

FINAL THOUGHTS

As I arrive at the end of these blog posts about our anniversary trip, I want to thank you all for joining me in our 16 day journey around Europe. It was 100% the trip of a lifetime and one we will never forget! And honestly, it’s hard to believe it was over 2 months ago that we left Atlanta to embark on this adventure. Time really flies. Until next time…