Advertisement
Florence, home to Dante, Michelangelo, the Medici family and for awhile DaVinci, it is gorgeous! And there is so much to do here and in the surroundings. I was here once before last summer, but I was working so I didn’t get to explore it how I would have liked! So I’m back.
The place I had originally booked had a double booking, so I ended up in a B&B in the same building, and it worked out really well! Dany House was really welcoming and homey, the beds looked a bit dodgy but I could sleep on them, and that’s what counts I suppose! As soon as you get in your offered a drink, and shown all the interesting stuff to see and do. I spent the afternoon of my arrival just settling in and walking around the town, going past the pretty green and pink marbled Duomo (Cathedral di Santa Maria del Fiore), beside which is the baptistery where Dante was christened! The campanile (bell tower) had a huge line up, so once again I couldn’t be bothered. Checked out the Ponte Vecchio and had another pig out on some gelato (can be quite expensive here so
beware), walked past the Palazzo’s Vecchio and Pitti (homes to the powerful Medici family) and checked out the Piazza di Santa Croce and its church (where Michealangelo is buried) before making my way back to the hostel.
Made friends with Teralynn (Canadian girl on a break from work in Japan) and Sabina (Polish girl on study break) and we were all disappointed when we found out there were a few public holidays we hadn’t known about so any museums where gonna be closed till today (Wednesday) so We spent another day just walking around town, and headed up to Piazzale Michelangelo for some amazing views over the town. That night we met Frederico, the B&B owner, what a character he is, doesn’t speak English, but does speak French, so Tera spent the evening translating for me! He sat us down and played away on his piano while we were sipping his home made red wine, it was a real laugh.
Yesterday Tera and I headed up north to the Cinque Terre via Pisa. It was quite funny, we got off at Pisa, legged it to the Tower and cathedral (seriously that is all there is to see in
Pisa) took shots of the must do ‘holding up the tower’ poses and then legged it back to the station in time for the next train (took us just over an hour all up!!). Saw the funniest thing ever while we were there, I don’t want to seem to stereotypical here, but we saw this woman, and seriously she could only have been posing for one of those Russian Bride magazines! She had huge bleached blonde hair, layered on makeup, bright red lipstick, and her outfit…… body clinging top and a mini, mini skirt in black and white with huge bright green platform heels! I tell you it is a sight I will never forget and the looks on everyone’s faces were priceless as she was trying to do these ultra sexy poses with not only the leaning tower in the background, but also the cathedral! I mean please, have some taste! you don’t do that by a church!!!!
The Cinque Terre is my absolute part of Italy! If I had known how picturesque this area would be I would have done 2 days everywhere else in Italy and spent at least a week here! It’s a series of
Monterosso
First village of the Cinque Terre 5 villages that cling to the cliffs over looking the ocean. You can hike between all of them. Tera and I started in Monterosso and only made it as far as Vernazza (the next town over) it took us 2 ½ hours to walk 2kms I think it was! You go up and down around the cliffs, it’s hard work at the start, there are like a gazillion steps but it’s so worth it! Vernazza has the most amazing Gelato place, it’s family run, and the son actually married an Aussie girl and they now have opened up a place in Tweed heads somewhere, I will be looking for that if I am ever down that way. I have to say the train journey on the way back was the most memorable I will ever have! I have never in my life been in a train that has had so many people squished into it, at each station people could see that it was full, but still insisted on pushing themselves into it, it didn’t matter that the next train was only 5 or 10 mins away! Tera had brought us a pizza as we were quite hungry so she
Attack of the Mortadella man!
Check out the look on Tera's face! spent quite a while with the box squashed to her chest, so by the time we got round to eating it (on the steps by the door of the train), it was all a big mess. There was this guy who must of seen how hungry we were and insisted on giving us his mortadella (kind of ham) sandwich, we didn’t know what to do he kept on saying ‘you have mortadella, very good, very nice, you have!’ he didn’t quite understand when we were saying no (or just ignored it), so pretty much threw this sandwich into the middle of our pizza and disappeared, came back again later to see if we had enjoyed it (of course we lied and said it was wonderful, hoping at the same time he didn’t try to open up our pizza box were we had left it stashed away).
Wednesday has finally came around, public holidays are over, we were up at stupid o’clock this morning to line up for the Uffizi, we were there by 7ish, and still a good 20 to 30 metres from the door, the gallery opens at 9am and we were still waiting till at least half
With Tera and Sabina
In line at the Uffizi past to get in! And seriously, by the time the gallery opened the people who were joining in the end of the line had a minimum 3 hour wait! However it was worth the line and money for me, just to see ‘The Birth of Venus’, but I was still expecting more then what I saw. The statue of David is displayed at the Galleria dell’Accademia, and as I had to leave after lunch to get into Rome, I just didn’t have time for another line up.
I’m in my next stop Rome!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.088s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.064s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb