New Year's in Vienna

After Munich, we arrived by bus in Vienna, on the Dec 29th. We checked into our hotel, Hotel Bristol and it was one of the most incredible hotels I have ever been too. Our room had a balcony with a view of the Vienna Opera House and it was in an amazing location. It was decorated elegantly and Venetian. I loved it... And right near by the main streets in the city. We arrived during the day and checked in and we were starving. Finding vegetarian food in Vienna proved to be quite difficult, but we found an AMAZING Asian restaurant. I had spicy Pad Thai, it was delicious. We went back the next day... :) We walked around and explored the city... So classy and so romantic. Before we knew it, it was New Year's Eve. We decided to buy a bottle of champagne and spend the night walking around the main streets. There were booths selling all types of warm drinks and food. The area is called Stephenplatz, named after the church that was lit up in a beautiful array of colors. We took pictures, looked at all the lights and made it back to our hotel balcony in time to watch the fireworks at midnight. It was a perfect New Year's Eve and I had my first ever fully romantic, successful New Year's kiss. It was everything I could have asked for. We spent our last few days in Vienna wandering the streets, we also visited the Belvedere museum and saw "The Kiss" by Klimt. It was so incredible and it is a masterpiece I have always wanted to see in person. We also had a great dinner one night at a wine bar. They only had 2 vegetarian dishes, but they were both mouth-wateringly delicious. We started with an amazing ginger squash soup and then I had potatoes, spinach and an egg. It was amazing. Max and I had such a great time in Vienna, we were so sad to leave, especially since we had a 13 hour bus ride back to Florence. We made it back finally (so tired) and Max had two weeks left here in Florence with me :)

When we got back to Florence, we spent some time walking around the city and I had to get back to my classes... I had really missed painting over these past few weeks. On our last full weekend with Max here in Florence, we went to visit Assisi, Umbria for a day. It was an amazing city on a hill, about a 2 hour train ride away. We went to the Basilica di San Francesco, which was our favorite place we went to while we were there. There were so many amazing frescos, many painted by Giotto and Cimabue. There was an incredible cycle of St. Francis's life painted in the upper church... I will never forget it. We had some great pasta for lunch and visited a few other churches. It was a great day in a beautiful city.