Florence, Italy
Tuscany! Ah, so beautiful! We got the train from Rome to Florence this morning… was only about an hour and a half and going with Europass meant we went first class. Heaps more room than on a plane but boy did our ears pop a lot! Was quite annoying by the end… why is that?
We arrived in Florence, quickly checked into hotel, then got the next train to Pisa. Lucky for us, they go every 30 minutes. Also lucky for us, we had already used our Europass today so the Pisa return was free! I was so excited to see sone of the countryside of Tuscany… love it! It was so great finally seeing the leaning tower of Pisa. It really is an amazing tower. I remember going to an Italian restaurant when I was younger and seeing the picture of it and thinking I want to see that one day. Well, now I have! We laughed at the people taking the pictures of themselves ‘holding’ the tower up, then did it ourselves too! Haha, losers. We had fun though ;)
On our return to Florence we headed to see Michaelangelos ‘David.’ It was well worth it… very impressive. It’s one thing seeing all the replicas, but seeing the real one was really special.
We then headed to the Duomo and decided to climb the dome. It was about 500 steep, winding stairs high, but sooo worth it!!! It was pretty overcast, but the views of Tuscany were just breathtaking. My skirt was blowing up all the place but I refused to leave, it was just too beautiful! While we were up there a couple got engaged.. very cute.
We then headed toward Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge in Florence. It looked very ‘Tuscan’ from afar with pretty plants etc sitting on old buildings but was then covered with jewelery shops (Simon thinks so they can afford the rent). Anyway, it was much nicer from afar so we had an early dinner and got a table looking out toward the bridge, just gorgeous! Marlene, you would have loved it! We has a delicious dinner of spaghetti with fresh basil… and wine, of course. I’m loving the basil and tomato over here… yumbo! Almost eating vegetarian, Elise! u proud?!
We then headed to the Porcellino (boar) fountain which Elise told us about. You put a coin in its mouth and if it falls into the fountain you are coming back to Florence. Was a bit of fun!
We had another wander through the city on our way home as we only have the one day here. It’s amazing the deep blue colour the sky stays after sunset- just gorgeous. Off to Siena tomorrow… and I have to drive a car on the wrong side of the road… it’ll be ok! Katie xo
