Florence

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30/9

TRAVEL DAY TO FLORENCE

Arrived in Florence at 3pm. At 5pm we headed into Florence as a group for a walking tour of the city before heading to the House of Sizzle - Red Garter for a group dinner. It was a great dinner. So delicious.


1/10

My first full day in Florence I headed into the city early with Trudy and Melissa and went to see the "David", which surprisingly I didn't have to queue for and I got there at such a great time as there were barely anyone in the musuem so had a great view of the scuplture of "David". It was an amazing scuplture. After seeing the "David" we went for a wander and found some great markets so we wandered around the markets for a while, the markets had great leather goods. I then parted with the girls and headed off for a wander around the city on my own.


2/10

Today is the day I have been looking forward to since starting oin Busabout - Horseriding throught the Tuscan countryside with lunch at a 13th Century castle. I have been so excited for this excursion. I was picked up by a lovely Italian guide and taken to the Horse riding ranch and walked around the stables while we waited for the other people doing the horseriding. 2 others came on the horseriding, but not on the lunch. The horseriding was amazing, the countryside was beautiful and it was such a lovely sunny day. My horse Emily decided that at every opportunity she want to eat so I had to fight with her the whole way, we were the last of the goup anyway but I kept getting further behind because of Emily being stubborn and eating every 5 steps but that was ok as it meant I was able to trot to catch up to the group, it was awesome. After the horseriding my guide took me to the "Il Feudo" Monteriggioni - Sienna, which was the 13th century castle for lunch, it was very wierd sitting having lunch by myself on a tour but the food was the most amazing food I have ever had, it was the perfect Italian meal. It started with bread, olive oil and balsamic vinegar and a plate of cold meats and sheeps cheese, with a white wine and a light red wine, second course was a plate divided into 3 with Zucchini saffron rissotto, Mushroom liguine and Black Truffel gnocchi, omg the most delicous thing you have ever tasted with 2 glasses of another red wine. By this stage I was completely full but was told by my guide that this was a true Italian experience and I still had dessert to come which was just beautiful with another wine, a very sweet holy wine. After lunch we went for a walk along the castle walls and tried some of the grapes on the vines. I got on really well with my guide and we had a great discussion about tuscany, Italian food etc. By the time I got back to the camp site I was completely full and so happy this was the most amazing day, I had so much fun.

3/10 and 4/10

I headed back into Florence and did some shopping and sight seeing. I went to the Duomo, to the markets, to the Ponte Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangiolo (which had the most amazing view over all of Florence), Pzlazzo Vecchio, Medici Chapels, Santa Croce Church. I pretty much just wandered around the city enjoying the sites, but I was very sick with a cold so I was not able to enjoy it as much as I would have liked.

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