Florence (Firenze) is the capital of the Tuscany Italian region. It's known for it's renaissance art and architecture. Pisa, also in the Tuscany region, stands as a testimony that poor engineering can be just as celebrated as proper design.
All in attendance: Kiyomi, Cristina, Cory, Gordon and Kristen
Kiyomi, Cristina and Cory came to visit Gordon and I from Canada! They arrived on Thursday (Nov 3) and found out after a very expensive lunch that nothing in Switzerland comes cheap. So in the interest of saving money until we got into Italy, we had simple kebabs for dinner.
After a night of sociables and catching up, we took the train to Milan (again!) by these crazy tickets Gordon found for 23 CHF on the sbb website. The train ride to Milan goes into the Italian portion of Switzerland and I had the pleasure of finally traveling it during the daylight (instead of in the middle of the night) and got to admire the beautiful scenery. We had a few hours in Milan, enough time to visit the Duomo again and get some standard over priced and subpar quality Milan food. Then it's back on the train for another 3 hours to arrive in Florence just before 10pm.
Our hotel (Hotel Bijou, 20euros/night)was right by the train station and about a 15 minute walk from everything we wanted to see.
We took a night time stroll to scope out a few places we wanted to visit during the day. We ate at Yellow Bar which was open very late, pretty delicious and not crazy over priced (most of touristy Italy usually is). I got pizza and gnocchi there and it was full of starchy goodness. Cristina is also fluent in Italian and it was a nice change to have someone around who could translate most things on the menu for you.
The next day, we strolled around. We went to see the Florence Duomo which is incredibly grand from the outside. I thought the giant circular domes were really impressive. Inside of it, not too much to write home about. The high vaulted ceiling are pretty grand but it doesn't hold a candle to the gold detailing in the Rila Monastery or the marble detailing at the Duomo in Milan.
We walked around the Florence area, taking all the beautiful architecture and peculiar statues. We went to the outdoor markets and I bought a really cute dress that I haggled down to 20 euros. We walked along the Arno river and I must've taken at least 40 photos of similar quaint Italian buildings along the water but it's okay to regularly indulge in your Asian tourist impulses. We also walked along the outside of the Uffizi Gallery. Unfortunately, with the time constraint of "Florence in a day", there wasn't really enough time to go see anything in a museum. A shame, for sure, but all the more reason to come back one day.
Notable things we did miss include Michelangelo's David and Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.
peculiar statues
I particularly like one with the gun - I don't know if I've ever seen a statue pointing a gun before
I particularly like one with the gun - I don't know if I've ever seen a statue pointing a gun before
We lucked out and ended up eating good mid-range prince food for lunch and dinner. We bought a few drinks and had them on the steps of the Cathedral. Cory even played the role of a good romantic and bought roses for Cristina, Kiyomi and I. Oddly, the roses were actually white roses that were dyed red.
The next day, Gordon and I left early in the morning and caught a train right before 8am for 5.90 euros to take us to Pisa, an hour away from Florence. I have heard from many people that they're is nothing to see in Pisa but the tower. Judging by our short and biased 1:30 stay in Pisa, I have to say that it's likely true.
We walked to Piazza dei Miracoli from the train station. There was nothing notable to see enroute to the Piazza except the river. However, the tower and the Piazza were quite beautiful. I had hoped to grab a photograph of all the ridiculous tourists taking perspective photos of the tower but we had arrived pretty early and there were very few crowds there.
Then it's some ridiculous 12 hour train ride home with a direct train from Pisa to Milan for 29.50 euros. On route, I noticed we passed through Cinque Terre which gave me a warm boost. Cinque Terre was the first trip out of Switzerland I took during my internship year only 3 short months ago.
Oh, and as always, it goes without saying that trips to Italy guarantees two things: lots of tiny coffees and lots of gelato.
Things I learned:
- Florence enjoys making their buildings yellow toned
- Warm fall weather to a Canadian is winter coat weather to an Italian
- SEE MUSEUMS (Uffizi, Bargello, Accademia Gallery)
- Go on a wine tour
