Volare...
Day 11
So today started out pretty average. I didnt sleep well last night on top of waking up extra early as well still feeling like such an idiot for getting my phone stolen... so I wasn’t overly happy. And again I know it’s only a phone but ugh. I was being so careful all the time and because we were bloody rushing to get away on time I completely misplaced it in the hotel room and left it out in the open for somebody to snatch. So stupid.
We were driven into Florence after breakfast but as the coach is not allowed to park in certain areas of Florence itself, we had to walk quite a bit to get to Piazza S. Croce where we were having a group photograph taken. It was an optional extra we could get, but I have chosen not to get one-it was a little expensive to be honest. Once we had our photos taken, we were taken to a leather store and were shown how Florentine leather jewellery boxes were made, which was very cool and interesting. It’s amazing that all they use is wood, glue and leather to make the boxes, no hinges, nails or anything like that. The man who showed us all this was Vincenzio, a very funny man who had a great sense of humour and didn’t mind taking the piss out of us. His demonstration was very entertaining. Afterwards we were free to walk around the store and purchase anything we like as we had a 10% discount but as usual everything was a bit too expensive for my liking (yes I am a tightarse), not that I really sure anything I liked.
We had free time for about an hour before our walking tour of Florence started, so a few of us drifted into a nearby jewellery store. They had some amazing and inexpensive jewellery in there and it was run by a little Italian man and his British wife, who were very nice and happy to have some Australian’s visit them. Nicole bought a beautiful ring and I think Kayla bought herself a gorgeous silver bracelet. The man also collects pins, and I think I heard Amy say he has over 9,000 of them. They were of anything and everything you could think of and lined all of the shop walls, it was pretty cool. Once we wandered down the streets for a bit longer, we met up in Piazza della Signoria for the beginning of our walking tour. The gentleman who took us on the tour (I forget his name, oops), was so knowledable and took us on a great hour long walk around the city. We saw where the town hall was (Palazzo Vecchio) and this little statue that has padlocks all over it-apparently lovers will write their names on a padlock, lock it onto the bars around the statue and throw the key into the river so their love will last forever. It’s a sweet story and there were hundreds of padlocks on there, apparently they get removed weekly because it fills up so much and so quickly.
We also saw where Michaelangelo’s copy of David sits although it was covered in scaffolding (alot of these places seem to be in the middle of restorations... I guess that is winter for you). We walked everywhere, saw the Santa Croce church, the Uffizi gallery, Medici Chapels, everything. Central Florence was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Once the tour ended at the Cathedral and Giotto’s Tower, some of the girls and I headed to a small little authentic Italian restaurant Amy had heard about and we had some of the best Italian food there. Nicole and I had calzone pizzas, Amy and Montanna had Margherita pizzas and Kayla had risotto. Very good feed and it was so cheap too. Once we finished lunch, we walked over to the Accademia and this was my favourite part of Florence.
The real Michaelangelo’s David is in this Accademia, and oh wow what a site. I can’t remember if we saw this the last time we were in Florence (Mum, Dad, refresh my memory please?) but holy crap what a site as you walk down the hallway and turn right. All of a sudden you see this massive statue in the distance and it kind of takes your breath away. I didn’t realise how big it was too, it was over 10 feet tall. We spent a decent amount of time in the Accademia, looking at David, all of Michaelangelo’s unfinished work and all of the artwork that was there. There was also a section dedicated to musical instruments that were from the 1600’s-1900’s, which was really cool. I saw the oldest piano and the tempation to touch it was very high!
Once we finshed in the Accademia it was time to meet up with everyone back at Piazza della Signoria as tonight was the night we had an optional dinner, the Tuscan dinner. We raced back to our hotel, made ourselves look and smell pretty and jumped back on the bus to be driven to the restaurant. This was the other highlight of Florence, such a great night. The food was amazing (4 course meals are starting to get a little overwhelming) and the entertainment fantastic-our waiters were so funny and really flirty/charming, and there was also an opera singer who sang all sorts of Italian classics. He was fantastic too, had a great voice and he even sang Volare at the end and got us all to join in... a few of the girls even got up and danced when the waiters invited them too, it was very funny. All in all, one of the best dinners so far-so much free wine (not good wine but drinkable!) and again, so much great food. The tomato pasta was the best (I know, me eating tomatoes, shock gasp horror!). Afterwards a few people went to a Florence nightclub but those of us who didn’t went back to the hotel and got drunk in our rooms and were generally loud. I felt a bit sorry for the other guests in the hotel :P just a bit...
Tomorrow we are heading to Rome, which is the place I am most looking forward to in Italy. Can’t wait to see the Pantheon and the Colesseum. Am really starting to feel tired now too, I can't believe how much we're on the go. I mean, I knew we would be but phew, it's amazing how much we are packing in to these days.
So today started out pretty average. I didnt sleep well last night on top of waking up extra early as well still feeling like such an idiot for getting my phone stolen... so I wasn’t overly happy. And again I know it’s only a phone but ugh. I was being so careful all the time and because we were bloody rushing to get away on time I completely misplaced it in the hotel room and left it out in the open for somebody to snatch. So stupid.
We were driven into Florence after breakfast but as the coach is not allowed to park in certain areas of Florence itself, we had to walk quite a bit to get to Piazza S. Croce where we were having a group photograph taken. It was an optional extra we could get, but I have chosen not to get one-it was a little expensive to be honest. Once we had our photos taken, we were taken to a leather store and were shown how Florentine leather jewellery boxes were made, which was very cool and interesting. It’s amazing that all they use is wood, glue and leather to make the boxes, no hinges, nails or anything like that. The man who showed us all this was Vincenzio, a very funny man who had a great sense of humour and didn’t mind taking the piss out of us. His demonstration was very entertaining. Afterwards we were free to walk around the store and purchase anything we like as we had a 10% discount but as usual everything was a bit too expensive for my liking (yes I am a tightarse), not that I really sure anything I liked.
We had free time for about an hour before our walking tour of Florence started, so a few of us drifted into a nearby jewellery store. They had some amazing and inexpensive jewellery in there and it was run by a little Italian man and his British wife, who were very nice and happy to have some Australian’s visit them. Nicole bought a beautiful ring and I think Kayla bought herself a gorgeous silver bracelet. The man also collects pins, and I think I heard Amy say he has over 9,000 of them. They were of anything and everything you could think of and lined all of the shop walls, it was pretty cool. Once we wandered down the streets for a bit longer, we met up in Piazza della Signoria for the beginning of our walking tour. The gentleman who took us on the tour (I forget his name, oops), was so knowledable and took us on a great hour long walk around the city. We saw where the town hall was (Palazzo Vecchio) and this little statue that has padlocks all over it-apparently lovers will write their names on a padlock, lock it onto the bars around the statue and throw the key into the river so their love will last forever. It’s a sweet story and there were hundreds of padlocks on there, apparently they get removed weekly because it fills up so much and so quickly.
We also saw where Michaelangelo’s copy of David sits although it was covered in scaffolding (alot of these places seem to be in the middle of restorations... I guess that is winter for you). We walked everywhere, saw the Santa Croce church, the Uffizi gallery, Medici Chapels, everything. Central Florence was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Once the tour ended at the Cathedral and Giotto’s Tower, some of the girls and I headed to a small little authentic Italian restaurant Amy had heard about and we had some of the best Italian food there. Nicole and I had calzone pizzas, Amy and Montanna had Margherita pizzas and Kayla had risotto. Very good feed and it was so cheap too. Once we finished lunch, we walked over to the Accademia and this was my favourite part of Florence.
The real Michaelangelo’s David is in this Accademia, and oh wow what a site. I can’t remember if we saw this the last time we were in Florence (Mum, Dad, refresh my memory please?) but holy crap what a site as you walk down the hallway and turn right. All of a sudden you see this massive statue in the distance and it kind of takes your breath away. I didn’t realise how big it was too, it was over 10 feet tall. We spent a decent amount of time in the Accademia, looking at David, all of Michaelangelo’s unfinished work and all of the artwork that was there. There was also a section dedicated to musical instruments that were from the 1600’s-1900’s, which was really cool. I saw the oldest piano and the tempation to touch it was very high!
Once we finshed in the Accademia it was time to meet up with everyone back at Piazza della Signoria as tonight was the night we had an optional dinner, the Tuscan dinner. We raced back to our hotel, made ourselves look and smell pretty and jumped back on the bus to be driven to the restaurant. This was the other highlight of Florence, such a great night. The food was amazing (4 course meals are starting to get a little overwhelming) and the entertainment fantastic-our waiters were so funny and really flirty/charming, and there was also an opera singer who sang all sorts of Italian classics. He was fantastic too, had a great voice and he even sang Volare at the end and got us all to join in... a few of the girls even got up and danced when the waiters invited them too, it was very funny. All in all, one of the best dinners so far-so much free wine (not good wine but drinkable!) and again, so much great food. The tomato pasta was the best (I know, me eating tomatoes, shock gasp horror!). Afterwards a few people went to a Florence nightclub but those of us who didn’t went back to the hotel and got drunk in our rooms and were generally loud. I felt a bit sorry for the other guests in the hotel :P just a bit...
Tomorrow we are heading to Rome, which is the place I am most looking forward to in Italy. Can’t wait to see the Pantheon and the Colesseum. Am really starting to feel tired now too, I can't believe how much we're on the go. I mean, I knew we would be but phew, it's amazing how much we are packing in to these days.