Biking Around Florence April 15, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Florence , 1 comment so farSorry about not posting yesterday we were so tired from the four hour bike ride around Florence and a million stairs that w
e went to the hostel and fell asleep. The bikes were cheap, only 1.50 Euro an hour or 4.00 Euro for five hours. We had a blast going around town, it was definitely less exhausting to go by bicycle than by foot. It was so fun that neither of us realized that our behinds were bruised from the constant bumps in the uneven stone pavement!
We went to the Michelangelo Piazza which is located at the top of a hill (meaning be prepared for a lot of steps) and has a great view of the city. At the top there is a replica of David in copper ( I suppose you could say he’s green with envy) and a man playing Queen on an electric guitar (he was playing it like a Dulcimer). And of course, perhaps the most amazing view of Florence!
Today we sat on a train for six hours or so to get to Napoli (Naples) and Found some cheap-eats via the front desk attendant who “knows a guy”. Very nice and very Italian. He also told us that we can take the city bus for a Euro to Pompeii or Herculaneum (Mt. Vesuvius is about six miles away from Napoli). I’m excited! I love ancient paraphernalia and impressive geographical features!
P.S. The BBC has posted that all flights in northern Europe and parts of Western Europe are canceled due to a volcanic explosion in Iceland. This should not effect our trip considering how far south we are currently, but we may get some lovely sunsets. I’ll take pictures if we do!
Best Of Tuscany Tour April 12, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Florence, Italy , add a commentThe tour started at 8:30 this morning when we boarded the bus and headed to Siena. A native of Siena, our guide, took us through the city; giving us insight into how the inhabitants live both now and in the past. It was very interesting! The city is divided into 17 neighborhoods that compete against each other twice a year in a horse race in the main square (Campo). The only rule is that a rider cannot mess with an opponent’s reigns, so there is a lot of foul play among the different neighborhoods. The winning neighborhood celebrates by drinking, obviously, and putting pacifiers in their mouths to symbolize that a new champion is born (and to put shame in the loosers).
The next stop was a Chianti wine farm that is situated on top of a tall hill in the country. The view was amazing! Rows and rows of Olive trees, Grape vines, and Saffron covered the valley. Also, we could see our next stop, San Gimignano, from there. At the farm we ate lunch of traditional pasta
Ragu, salad, sheep cheese, and bread with Olive oil. About 95% of what we ate came from the farm we were on. We even met the Chianina cows!
So then we got back on the bus and headed for stop number three. San Gimignano is also situated on a hill top and is famous for it’s towers and it is also home of “the best Gelato”. There were once around 70 towers, but now ther
e are a lot less. It was a strange sight to see since the towers look like modern-day sky scrapers. San Gimignano is very small, so it was easy to navigate (20 minutes or less from one side to the other) and the city still has it’s old city walls in tact so it’s not easy to accidentally leave the city. We got there and immediately went to the Gelato shop. There were strange flavors (such as Saffron with cinnamon), interesting flavors , and tasty sounding flavors all ready to be eaten. We tried the Passion Fruit, Mango, and Strawberry.
The next stop was Pisa. We were a wee bit peckish by then, so we grabbed Mc.Donald’s and had a little picnic in front of the Duomo (Nothing says 
Americans in Italy better than a McRoyal at a large tourist destination). The guide said that the marble facade of the buildings came from many different places and we saw that because random bricks that had Celtic knots or Latin written on them, and the pieces were all different colors.
P.S. Our “cat rental” came in through the window yesterday after about two hours of meowing it’s head off on the neighbor’s roof. It was shocking and hilarious.
First Day In Florence April 10, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Florence , add a commentSo today was basically a in transit day for us. We took a train from Venice to Florence and then walked for a long time because we got lost trying to find our hostel. Another new lesson we learned is Google maps does not tell you that there are
two different street numbers; black and red. In fact it directed us to two completely different places; neither were our hostel.
After we got there and were checked in, the hostel owner sat down with us and wrote all over a map showing us where we should go and what is great to see(there is a lot). It was like getting a grand tour of the city on a map!After, we were very exhausted and headed to the room to relax and do some research on the places we’d like to go in Italy (we are now booked at a $34 a night hotel in Napoli for next stop).
After dinner we headed to the Piazza de Repubb
lica (where my mom and I stayed before) to see the Charlie Chaplain street act. We got there extra early, and got some Gelato, found a good spot, and watched the illegal purse sellers and the cops play the cat and mouse game.
He has been preforming for 26 years in the same street right outside of the Piazza, every night around 9:45, 7 days a week. His show is very comical and we had a great time watching him play with the crowd. Unfortunately this was a bad night for him; the crowd was uncooperative and seemed to have hardly any sense of humor. It was still funny and we talked to him after ward and he apologized because everyone left in the middle of the show, including the people who were participating in the show itself. We’ll try again later this week.
