Florence

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Florence

We arrived in Florence by train and were amazed to realise that our hostel was just down the road from the train station. So suitcases in tow, we made the 500m stroll down one of the main streets of Florence and just around the corner we found the place that we were to spend the next 5 nights.
We got into the hostel and checked in with the owner who was amazing. It seems that little hostels will always overdo the bigger hotels in service, which is where it really matters. The guy who checked us in laid out a little map and showed us all the places that we really must see before leaving Florence. These things included the Statue of David by Michelangelo, the Duomo, the Pitti Palace and the main tourist strip with all the markets that are open for 12 hours each day.
So after checking in and even getting our room upgraded to one upstairs with air conditioning, we decided to head out and see what the markets were all about. We spent a few hours browsing through the stalls and trying to avoid the pushy sellers. These guys would follow you with one arm laden with belts and the other holding a tray of sunglasses or bracelets etc. One guy was ever walking around with earrings poked into an umbrella! We did manage to buy a few goodies including a few hats, an Italian FIFA jersey for myself and an Italia T-shirt for Sarah.

Once we had finished with the markets, we headed towards the supermarket down the road and got a roast chook and some potatoes for dinner. Cheapest meal we’ve had in a long time totalling around 9 euro for both of us!!!
We then went back to the hostel and had dinner outside where we met an Aussie couple from Sydney. Tim and Beth are brother and sister on holiday around Europe and were staying in our hostel. We had a bit of a chat over dinner and organised to meet up and a pub that had 5 shots for €5!! This is a pretty good deal but when we got there we didn’t realise that it was shots of juice. Feeling pretty ripped off we all left with another four people called Samantha and Sarah-Rose from New York, who were also staying at the hostel and Danny who works at the hostel and his friend Luci. We all headed to another bar that the Italians took us too that was really quite good but very crowded. We had a few drinks and then all headed to what Danny referred to as the main attraction! We got to yet another club and this is where we stayed for rest of the night and most of the morning! Sarah had her first tequila shot which went down surprisingly well, given tequila’s track record with most people! Sarah-Rose even shouted us a drink which was lovely of her but Samantha and her went back to the hostel before we could return the favour. Sarah and I decided it was time to go home at around 2am and headed back to the hostel. We arrived at a bridge that we hadn’t passed all night and then decided that we were lost and quite drunk. Not a good idea! So with that we went back to the club and met up with Danny, Luci, Tim and Beth and spent another hour and a half at the club. At around 3:30 we walked back to the hostel, the right way this time and even stopped off for a kebab which was probably the most Australian thing we’d seen all trip.
When we got back to the hostel, Tim and Beth moved their mattresses into our room as we had air-con and they didn’t. Not that Tim would have noticed, he passed out before his head even hit the pillow!

That next morning Sarah and I decided that we weren’t going to go out that day, not because we didn’t want to but because of the tequila induced headache and hangover. We were pretty much incapacitated! After pushing down some pasta for lunch, we headed back to the hostel for a snooze and only started to feel better after dinner. That night we watched a movie and went to bed.

Our third day in Florence came, and we had decided that we would spend the day checking out what Florence had to offer. So with that we headed out along that main tourist street and came across an array of street performers from a creepy guy in a sheet to an Egyptian woman with masks! After making our way through the hordes of tourists, we headed to the main bridge in Florence which in lined with shops. Only really jewellery shops though. Expensive jewellery shops!! So we headed a few streets away from all the action and stopped for lunch which was again, very cheap. After this we had something that had ashamedly become pretty regular for us. Lunchtime Dessert!!! Yes the gelato is so good here that we often have it after every meal except breakfast! We then headed past the Pitti Palace but decided it wasn’t worth seeing as it was pretty expensive and didn’t have too much appeal to either of us. So we walked across a bridge and up what seemed like never-ending stairs to the Statue of David by Michelangelo. The views from the top of the lookout where the statue is located were astounding. I’ll try to put together a panorama for you all to see before I post this. After this we headed back down the stairs and headed back across the river to the Galileo museum. This museum houses two collections depicting how Galileo and Isaac Newton pioneered the science of Optics and Astronomy. The items on show range anywhere from 14th century sundials, to 17th century compasses and measurement devices. After this intriguing experience we headed back through the town square and back to the hostel. We then headed out for dinner at an amazing little restaurant called Bondi on the main road. After our fantastic dinner, we headed back to the hostel to watch another harry potter movie and then to bed.

Our fourth day in Florence, we decided to venture outside the city limits and make our way to Pisa. So after breakfast we walked back to the train station and boarded our train. An hour and a bit later we arrived in Pisa and caught a bus the tourist square which houses the Duomo (yes the Italians love these things), and of course the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After laughing at all the people standing on things holding their arms in the air, we too looked a bit stupid trying to push the tower back into place for a photo! We spent a bit of time wandering around looking at the stalls and tourists taking pictures in the most obscure of places (lying on the ground taking pictures of the tower with another person in front of them). After this we tried to buy a ticket to climb the tower, but decided against it as the next climb was at 5:45pm and it was only 2pm at the time. So with that we headed back to the bus to the train station and made our way back to Florence. When we arrived back in the city, we headed back to the Bondi restaurant for dinner as it was so good the night before. The rest of the night follows pretty much the same as the previous with us heading back to the hostel to watch the final instalment of harry potter.

Our last full day in Florence had finally arrived and ever since arriving, we had been told to visit a group of 5 villages called Cinque Terre. So we did! We made our way to the west coast of Italy which took about three hours and got off the train at one of the villages called Rio Maggiore. It was a little bit miserable in terms of weather but it didn’t bother us too much. We were starving since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was nearly 1pm so we headed up the main street and got a pizza to share. After this we headed further up the hill to see if anything worthwhile awaited us. We found a car park and a closed tourist information centre so we headed back down the hill. We soon found the town harbour which was quite a good find. The wind had picked up heaps so the waves were smashing down on the rock and it was pretty good just to sit and watch. After a little while we headed back to the train station as it was starting to rain, and travelled another 3 hours back to Florence.

Our day of departure had arrived, so we checked out and headed for the train station on our way to Venice!

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