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Published: September 22nd 2009
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Day 514 (7/09/09) Steps 24323(Continued)
After arriving in Florence we discovered it was the Festival of Paper Lanterns, celebrating the Virgin Mary's birthday, so we set off in search of the piazza where the parade would begin from.
We arrived to only a handful of children with lanterns most appearing to be going home, disappointed we turned back forwards our hostel only to run right into the parade complete with musicians and hundreds of children and family's with handmade paper mache latterns and designer lanterns. We joined the festivities, doubling as a guided tour of Florence arriving at the Piazza Annunziata for the Cardinal's address. Over a couple beers, unable to understand the address we watched the 'bigger' kids clearly grown out of lanterns, run around trying to burst the latterns with classy version of pea shooters with clay ammo. With the festivities concluded we made our way home with a giant fairy floss!
Day 515 Steps 17441
After a huge home cooked breaky (steak, eggs and tomato), we left for our tour of Florence. First stop the Ponte Vecchio (Florence's oldest bridge, the only one to survive WW2) today its lined with extravagant jewellary shops and like most things
in Europe.... tourists.
We past the monster line waiting to purchase tickets to the Uffizi Gallery (deciding it could wait to another day), to the Piazza delle Signora, previously the home of the famous David statue (original), now displays a number of replica statues. Past the Piazza Republica to Piazza Duomo. Here we stopped for delicious forest fruits and chocolate waffle and admired the spectacular building complex. We wandered the surprisingly blane interior of the Duomo after its extravagant exterior and then joined the queue to climb up the dome (Cupola) for some impressive view of the city.
From the Duomo we went to Piazza San Marco, stumbling across the lavish gold interior of the San Marco Church in our hunt for the Accademia Gallery, we should have just looked for the queue. Another 45minutes later we entered and made a beeline for David, (the most impressive statue) who takes pride position in the centre of the gallery, we passed the two small rooms of statues and paintings which pale into insignificane in comparison and enjoyed the modern art display by... I can't remember but it was very good!). Stopping for one last look of David we called it a
day. After booking a wine tour for the following day we went out for dinner, shouting ourselves the bistecca alla fiorentina, a Florence speciality, a very rare steak aged for up to 40 days... delicious.
Day 516
Up and at 'em we met out tour at Plus Hostel and set off on our Wine Tour with Dario our Italian tour guide. After an informative session regarding the history of Florence and its claim to fame; discovering terracotta, chianti wine, Pinocchio, some valuable advice to the guys about Italian women and a brief Italian language lesson we arrived at out first stop the Fatoria Castello Winery, after a brief tour of the Castle (previously a fortress during the war), past the tiny chapel and through the cellers (previous the Castle prison) and lesson on specifics of Chianti wine (Theirs is produced from >80% sangiovese grapes and aged for 18months). We tucked into three substantial tastings (a bottle between 7), of Rose, House Red and Chianti, complimented with pecorino cheese and pepper relish, salami and bread and bruschetta with local extravirgin olive oil.
Back on the road again we stopped at the tiny town of Greve, all but closed for siesta,
we had a quick look at the local butchery packed to the rafters with cured ham (some aging since 2007!?!) and cheeses. Then we were back on the bus to out lunch winery were we tried another Rose and Chianti, bruschetta (with tomato or beans), napolitana pasta and salad.
Finally, we stopped at Grappa distillery, after the run down on how to produce the finest Grappa, we headed to the tasting room for a cherry grappa, a pure grappa and a sambuca.
Back on a more lively bus then the one we arrived on, we passed around the sambuca and headed back to hostel for some more reds on the hostel balcony as the sun set...
Day 517
A little worse for wear.... it was a very slow start. We checked out of Ciou Hostel and headed for Pisa.
After a reviving lunch we strolled down to Pisa's famous Leaning Tower, regrettfully from a architectural stuff up! As the tower started to lean after just three level's and now boasts 8 and a 4.1m lean (since been corrected from 5m in 1998 ). We joined the other loony's photographing the tower in awkward poses then sat back and enjoyed
the spectacle in the sun.
Back on the train to the Cinque Terre, famous for its five villages build along the ocean. We arrived in the port town of La Spezia, with no accomodation booked we sought the assistance of the most useless tourist office and headed into town none the wiser. First hotel.. booked out, second one ... closed.... third.. vacant at 80 Euro... heavy backpacks, hungover and tired we were sold.
A quick pizza for dinner, we wandered down the pedestrian street to the port, past the fisherman and young lovers and back to the room making the most of the free wi-fi to plan the rest of our trip.
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