We got up early and got our stuff all packed for our train trip to Florence. We headed to the train station and bought our tickets for a regional train (the cheapest and longest journey). The trip was about 4 hours, but it seemed to go quite quickly. We had some seats to ourselves to we played some uno and cards to kill some time.
When we got to Florence, as per usual it took us ages to find the hostel. We didn’t have a great map of the city so I went into a real fancy pance hotel to ask for a map and directions after about 45 minutes walking to try find the place. The guy was very nice and pointed us back in the direction we had came but we had a map now! So we found it pretty easily – but the hostel had a tiny tiny sign on the door (4cmx2cm). We got up the stairs and checked in. We decided to book a twin room as it was very cheap and was about the same price as a dorm room. The room was massive – and it’s like a double bed so that was good news. We’ve got a safe and a large dining table and a massive ensuite. After dumping our bags – we went out to explore.
Walking the streets was great – you got woffs of fresh waffles being cooked and everyone seemed really happy. The first few pub/bars we looked at – we saw they sold cider and walking down to the supermarket we saw they had a chocolate festival happening for 5 days.
There’s not a lot in Florence, but the atmosphere of the city has been one of best we’ve stayed at.
We got a few things at the supermarket and headed back to the hostel to drop our stuff off. We decided to eat out that night and then go for a couple of drinks. We had a great chicken kebab at this place… the guy gave us a 2 euro discount for something… we then headed across the road to this American pub and I had a beer called a Gasoline Beer and Cindy had a strongbow. We started talking to this Brisbane guy who works as a head chef called ‘1889 Enoteca’ in Woolongabba. He seemed really nice so we kept talking to him and after a drink we all went out to find the Australian Pub which was meant to be around the corner. Well we found it…but it was closed… it was 7:45pm so we thought we’d wait till 8 to see if it opened… we walked around the corner to have a look in the chocolate festival and OMG – The chocolate was incredible!! We just looked but everything look delicious. At 8, we went back to see that the pub was still closed. I remembered seeing a Scottish Pub back near our hostel – so we went there and it was open. I tried a Scottish beer called Devils Kiss, Cindy had a bulmers. After our first drink – Matthew and I had a Tequila shot… the bartender was like “you won’t need lime and salt, this stuff is smoooth”… I was a little apprehensive… but we shot it and it was soo good…. It didn’t burn or anything. After the shot we went back to the American pub and had a drink watching this band warm up, they sounded really good but apperently wouldn’t start till 11pm. So Cindy and I finished our drink and headed back to the hostel. We made an arrangement to meet up with Matthew for lunch the next day.
The next day – we slept in because we could and no one was in the room to bother us or wake us up. Plus I wasn’t feeling too well from that tequila the night before so it made the day longer… so we took our time and then went out to meet Matthew.. It wasn’t the nicest day – cold and rainy. We couldn’t find Matthew – we waited about 15 minutes and then gave up. So went and found a cheap place to have lunch. Found a place that did cheap cabonaras… It wasn’t great but it wasn’t too bad, we saw him warming it up in the microwave. ( I would think it would be illegal for Italians to serve frozen Italian meals). We walked around and went to a giant church – The outside was insane – so much detail was put into everything… but inside was very big but very plain. We found a square (piazza) that had all these statues – there was a replica of the statue of David. We found a really cool looking pizzeria that we thought we would try out one day. We then went to the chocolate festival – there is such a selection – we tried some different chocolates.. but we bought a really lifelike spanner and nut and bolt. Was so cool.
We went to the supermarket again and bought ingredients for spaghetti. We ate the chocolate spanner, nut/bolt over the day/night and they were so delicious.
The next day we walked around town and had found that little pizza place… It was packed so we waited and I had a Mediterranean pizza and Cindy had a calzone (A pizza folded in half). They were really nice… We went back to the chocolate festival and thought we’d try a different chocolate. We went to this one booth and got a sliver (75grams) of this amazing hazelnut chocolate. The blocks were massive. We also bought a chocolate spoon. You can only eat a tiny bit of the hazelnut chocolate so it will last a long time.
I started to get a fluey during the afternoon… so we came back to the hostel and I drugged up with vitamins.
This morning, I took some cold and flu tablets and we off we set to Pisa, It was really easy to get there by train. The leaning tower is so cool – really busy. Quite busy with tourists and locals alike… the weather was so nice (not a cloud to be seen), still cold in the shade though. We sat and looked at the tower and had morning tea and then walked around Pisa. There’s not a great deal to do in Pisa, but we had a nice lunch and then headed back to Florence. We walked back and decided to have a Gelato, I had a peppermint one and Cindy had a vanilla. There smalls were massive… They were delicious but sickening… You felt quite ill after eating a only a small tub. We walked around some smaller back streets where we havent been yet, there was this tiny 3 wheeled car charging it’s batteries with this little electricity thing on the side of the road. So cool!!
We thought we’d check out the chocolate festival as it was the last day and we thought we could get a bargain. Some stuff was cheaper, Cindy got a chocolate dog and I got a chocolate camera. We also got this cool chocolate light bulb. The festival was packed – so hard to move around.
We’ve booked another 2 nights in Florence – we might try go day trip to Sienna and another town before going to Bologna for 3 nights before going to Padova which is about 3o minutes from Venice. It’s carnival time in Venice so alot of it’s booked out or very very expensive – there are hardly any hostels ( I think 1 hostel) so we’re staying out of Venice and are going to catch the train into Venice everyday and see Carnival (Venice Mardi Gra) – Have to buy a mask!!
Hope all is well!
No comments:
Post a Comment