We just returned to our hotel room for a quick break before dinner. After spending ten hours exploring Florence, our feet and legs are sore and exhausted but it was the perfect “Florence highlights” day! 
Bo and I arrived in Florence yesterday afternoon following a quick, one hour flight from Geneva! I am so glad we took everyone’s recommendations and chose Florence as our five year wedding anniversary destination! The city is beautiful, the people are friendly, compared to Geneva everything is reasonably priced, the service is fabulous and the depth of culture is almost limitless!
After settling in our hotel we headed across the river to the Pitti Palace or Palazzo Pitti, a large Renaissance palace which is best known for being the Medici family residence. It was the official residence of the Florence rulers until 1919, when the Savoys gave it to the state. Visitors can spend all day exploring the vast museums and grounds, including the spectacular Boboli Gardens. As we only had two hours to explore, we prioritized the Royal Apartments and the Palatine Gallery. In case you visit in the future, please note that the ticket process is VERY confusing but you can do research in advance online. There are 3 levels of tickets, the 3rd being the most inclusive and unbeknownst to us at the time, it is valid for 3 days!
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We followed everyone’s recommendations and enjoyed a glass of champagne at the Westin Excelsior rooftop bar, Se-Sto, while watching the sunset in the distance.
We spent the next hour reflecting on our five years of marriage and eleven years together, reminiscing over our favorite memories.
Our next and final stop of the day was a delicious, casual dinner at Trattoria 13 Gobbi. We asked our hotel to make us reservations at a relaxed, casual Italian restaurant with very good food. The last thing we wanted was fancy or stuffy. Trattoria 13 Gobbi, located just a few blocks from our hotel, met these requirements perfectly! The restaurant has a cozy, intimate atmosphere and specializes in local Tuscan cuisine. We enjoyed steak Florentine and a delicious rigatoni pasta served in a melted mozzarella and tomato sauce, unlike anything we’ve tasted before. 
Based on how wonderful our first twelve hours in Florence were yesterday, I can only imagine what the rest of the weekend will hold! We’re off to enjoy a bike ride through Chianti today, including stops at local vineyards, a castle and an olive oil factory with I Bike Italy!
Almost a year ago, I shared a Day in the Life post with you all. As things have changed since I last shared, I figured that today was the perfect day to share with you!
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5:30am Alarm #1 goes off even though my eyes have no intention of opening yet. We stayed up one episode too last night watching Season 2 of The Newsroom.
5:35am Alarm #2 goes off and luckily this time Bo reminds me that we will be late to swim practice if we don’t get out of bed immediately.
5:55am We head out the door twenty minutes after changing into swim gear, making coffee, grabbing my breakfast and snacks and work clothes.
6:10am Since it’s early and there is no traffic, it only takes us 15 minutes to get to the pool which is about half the time it takes to drive the same distance in the evening. Some mornings we listen to the radio but this morning we listen to an old Dave Matthews cd.
6:20-7:20am – Today’s swim practice is tougher than normal, not due to the distance, but the strokes. We did almost 500 meters of butterfly, which I have only learned this year. One swim practice per week is dedicated to drills while the other one focuses on speed. After completing 200 meters of legs only butterfly drills my legs and abs were really wishing it was an endurance day, that’s for sure!
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7:20-7:45am Shower, blow dry my hair, apply makeup and get dressed quickly as I have a meeting starting promptly at 8. I’m excited that Fall has finally arrived in Geneva which means tights, tall boots, warm orange colors, and my favorite navy wool blazer! 
8 – 8:15am First meeting of the day lasts only 15 minutes, 45 minutes shorter than planned.
8:15- 9am Go through work emails and eat breakfast. My breakfast these days is oats with a banana, flax seeds, cinnamon, and vanilla protein powder with coffee on the side. I’m bringing my coffee from home as I love the flavor and it saves just a little bit of money each day. When I go through my work emails each morning, I do my best respond to as many as possible then flagthe ones which need to be responded to later.
9-12pm Three hours spent working on a presentation.
12-1pm I enjoy every minute of lunch today, catching up with a co-worker, helping her plan her upcoming trip the United States. Even though I don’t always take advantage of the Swiss hour “lunch break” I am thankful to know that I can always count on having an hour mental break during the day. Last week, when working from our New York City office, I felt a significant difference in my afternoon productivity since I didn’t have a single break and found myself eating lunch during meetings or while working.
1-7pm Six hours of video conferences and conference calls is straight up exhausting, especially when I’m leading three of them. I’m working on a project that is based on the West Coast which means time changes are resulting in late meetings at least a few times a week. Luckily tonight’s call is done by 7pm, earlier than most.
7-7:30pm I catch up with my mom and write a few thank you notes during the bus ride home.
7:45pm Only 15 minutes after walking through the door I’ve changed into my favorite sweatpants, lit our pumpkin candle I brought back from the United States and am catching up Bo. We end up having a long discussion about an article he read in Business Insider about lasting relationships and their two basic traits.
8-8:30pm Enjoy a small salad and homemade chili with Bo while we research Florence, in advance of our anniversary trip.
8:30-10:30pm We get wrapped up in two more The Newsroom episodes before I fall asleep on the couch.
How about your day? What does it look like?