One of the best trips I've ever taken was less than a year ago, when my partner and I spent a week in Florence, Italy.

Our vacation had an inauspicious start, when Air France lost our luggage. By the next morning, however, we let this irritant go, and went to see Michelangelo's David at the Accademia. We bought our tickets beforehand, so we didn't have to wait on line for 2 hours - that would have been aggravating. Fans of art, architecture, and Medieval/Renaissance history are in Heaven in Florence. This city has the most, and best, Renaissance art and architecture in the world. Dante's house, da Vinci's melding of art and science, Galileo's first telescopes, Botticelli's Birth of Venus...the list goes on and on. Even someone who travels to Florence for the luxury hotels and great Tuscan restaurants, can't help but be swept up in the sense of history here.

Getting around Florence is a snap; the narrow streets (remnants from Medieval days) means you walk almost everywhere. We met up with four of our stateside friends while in Italy, and the seven of us had the times of our lives touring Florence's Duomo, some smaller museums, and partaking in long evenings of Tuscan wine and Italian food. Real, fresh, dark Italian coffee and espresso simply can't be beat, and even the big international coffee chains know it. There's not a single Starbucks in all of Florence.

I have the wanderlust of a true travel lover, and world travel is often expensive and difficult to arrange, work-wise. Because of this, I try to always visit somewhere new when I take a vacation. Florence, however, is a city I want to visit, again and again. Molto grazie!