14 -16 August 2008

Florence / Firenze

ITALY

14 August 2008

View of city from Michaelangelo Piazza

Today we left La Spezia and drove to Pisa to pick up Debra. We didn't stop in Pisa as I am going on my other trip and Michelle had already seen it. On our way to Florence we drove and stopped in Lucca - Lucca is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near (but not on) the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca. Among other reasons, it is famous for its intact Renaissance-era city walls (although the city has expanded beyond the wall's boundaries). Lucca (like a lot of other small villages I visited) is surrounded by city walls.

Dummo in Lucca - Panorama of city centre in Lucca

We then proceeded to keep driving to Florence and pulled into our accommodation for the next three days - Camping Firenze (Florence). The weather in Italy during my whole stay there was hot. I am talking 35 - 40 degree heats. I love the heat (hence why I moved to Gold Coast) but can tell you the other girls (especially Michelle) were not coping well.

That night we headed down the hill from our campground to find some dinner. We stepped into this yum restaurant where Debra and Michelle had pasta and I had some much craved red meat. Unfortunately, as we found quite common in Italy, we got overcharged. After trying to sort it out me speaking no Italian the lady speaking no English we managed to fix it. Now I think over the course of my two weeks in Italy one of us must of got shortchanged/overcharged at least once a day, because of that we keep a close eye on charges and change. I recommend you keep an eye out should you go to Italy.

Super yum dinner - Michelle ahd tomato pasta, Debra had a pear with cheese sauce (what you see is pretty much all she got) and I had a yum steak dish.

15 August 2008

Fake David statue

Today we went into town to look through the markets and see the fake statue of Michaelangelo's "David". I had a yum chicken and potatoes for lunch and Debra managed her way through Bruchetta (she hates tomatoes) and a giant pizza. We got stung with a 2.00 Euro per person surcharge there, another pointer to watch when in Italy check the service fees before you sit down to eat.

After lunch to help us digest our food, we took part in one of our favourite Italian pastimes - eating gelato - some of us ate it more than others!! :) Lucky bronze boar

As soon as we hoped off the bus today it poured down!! Lucky for us we have all lived in London/Ireland and always carry umbrellas! The rain was a good thing though as it cooled down a bit.

After chilling in the tent for the afternoon we decided to head up the road to have dinner. I begrudgingly ordered a salad (felt I needed some vegetables) and since my steak looked so good last night Debra thought some red meat would be good. She tried to ask the waitress (who spoke no word of English) to see how big the steak was and after giving up ordered it anyway. It came out, all 750 grams of it. What a hero though, managed to get through the whole thing!

Debra's steak before and after

16 August 2008

After a freezing cold night in our house tent we headed into Florence again to have another look around and eat some more gelato.

For dinner we decided to go to a bar. For 8.00 euros each we got to eat some apperetives (see above if you don't remember what they are) and a (very strong) cocktail. The apperetives consisted of pasta, rice, pizza, carrots and heaps of other yum scrumptious dishes.