Leaving Florence.. Tuscany Day Tour

We had a very laid back and relaxing time in Florence, but after spending five days in Florence, we were more than ready to move on. In the free Florence map that was provided by our hostel, there was a very value-for-money day covering most of the sights that we wanted to go. So off with our bags to the next location.. we started the tour with

Siena

Piazza del Campo, shaped like a hollow shell, this piazza holds the famed Siena horserace annually. It is known as one of the most beautiful squares in the world. If I weren't on the tour, I would drop everything and gladly stay there to have a cup of coffee and soak in the sun at the square.


The color Siena, is supposed to have come from this city due to the color of its rooftops under the summer sun. Didn't really see it, but hey, it sure makes a good story.



Cathedral of Siena - The facade looks grand, but what I loved more was the marble sculpturing on the ground. Due to the wear and tear, it was open only for a few months in a year and mainly under restoration. Thank goodness, this time round my timing was good, and the floor was completely restored when I was there.



The tour stopped for an hour at this vineyard for lunch. Lunch was some salad with grated cheese, tomato fusili, desert was port with amaretto biscottis (almond flavored cookies) and free flow of white & red wine. The food was very home-made and rustic. I kept hitting the baskets of amaretto biscottis. They were so good !!



Next stop was San Gimignano, where my agenda was just to hit one of the best gelato in Italy. Now, practically most of the gelato i had in Italy was good. Not to say that the ones in Singapore like Island Creamery is bad, in fact, proud to say that those are comparable to the ones that I had in Italy. It's just the sheer variety of flavors that I could find in Italy was mind boggling.

Then, I had the gelato from this place. I was stuffed.. really STUFFED from lunch & those biscottis. But I had two ice creams from this place because it was just that good. If I remember correctly, I had grapefruit, amaretto, rum and Vernaccia(the local wine). I could get 2 flavors in a scope. The difference, the true difference, was that it was so light and creamy, I couldn't taste the ice in ice cream at all. It just felt like solidified cream without the heavy or rich feeling. It was not like Hagen Diaz, rich, thick and creamy. It just felt lighter, and not because someone whipped in alot of air or added alot of water. (If that description makes any sense at all, my power of description is truly appalling)


San Gimignano was not just all about the ice cream. (But for me, it pretty much was!)This town used to serve as an important relay point for pilgrims travelling to or from Rome. The powerful families who controlled the town built around 72 tower-houses as symbols of their wealth and power. But only 14 have remained.

Again, the bad point of the day-tour or any tour is that you only get the highlights. The churches and the art within Siena, there was simply no time to check them out and we were on our way to Pisa.



We reached Pisa a good 1-2 hours before sunset. After Rome, Florence, Assisi, Perugia, I have never felt that Italy was a touristy country until I reached Pisa. In fact, Pisa did not give me a good feeling at all. It was dirty, didn't feel very safe, illegal vendors were all around the place hawking wares on the streets. Even our tour guide was warning us about pickpockets. Talk about making a bad impression.

Both me and my friend declined to head back to Florence and stayed in Pisa for the night. Unfortunately, because the hostel rates in Pisa were really expensive and limited, the cheapest hostel that we found, we did not realise how far it was until we started to make our way there. We took close to 2 hours of frantic walking to get to our hostel, which was actually a home, with a room rented out. We missed the opportunity to climb the tower of Pisa at sunset.



The hostel made it up the next day with a free breakfast inclusive of our room.

It definitely made up for the 2 hour trek, we had a good breakfast of milk, coffee, tea, bread, cheese, cereal. There was a whole load of food to start a good day.

The Italian Countryside

In between my various days in Florence, we took a break and headed out to Perugia & Assisi. Actually, it was more like we bought train tickets to Assisi and stopped by Perugia to grab a quick look because it was briefly mentioned in my Lonely Planet.

Dear all, this is Perugia. We did not try to make our way to anything, we just hung out and enjoyed this little Italian village on a hilltop with these amazing views.




Around 1-2pm, we made our way to Assisi. Assisi was known as the birthplace of St Francis.


We made our way to the Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi. Built in 1228 and completed in 1253, the church is decorated in frescoes by Giotto. We were not allowed to take photos within the church. So no photos to show here, but i did go down to the lower levels where the tomb of St Francis was located. The church was okay, but maybe because I did not want to spring for the audio guide, so I had quite a neutral feeling towards this World Heritage site.


Despite being in a holy city, it did not stop me from bitching. The town of Assisi is on a hill top, everything was uphill, at a very tiring steep angle. I was remarking to my friend that i would never be fat if i stayed in Assisi for more than a month. Took a train back to Florence.

Firenze - The Epicenter of the Renaissance

Day 1:-
Arrived in Florence via the train. After we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, we headed for the biggest monument marked on our tourist map.



The Santa Maria del Fiore or also known as the Duomo di Firenze. This architecture monster was so stunning that my camera does not do it justice at all. For one, this building is HUGE. White with its marble, intricate in its details and design. 140 years in the making, it was first built in 1296 and only completed in 1436.


I initially wanted to climb up to the top of the Duomo, but the queues were way too long. So I started exploring around the area (okay, I got lost again) and found Accademia Gallery. Where the original David ! and Michelangelo's unfinished Slaves were displayed. Pieta, Santa Maria in Rome has already made me in awe of Michelangelo's works. David and the Slaves made me a true slave. Now I can finally understand what made a great sculpture, how I felt that the Slaves were trying to break free from the marble. The every detail and angle that I viewed David gave me a different feeling. No detail was missed out.

Afterwards, I headed to San Lorenzo for a quick look before meeting up with my friend. San Lorenzo was the Medici family chapel. Again, I was not allowed to take photos inside. But the interiors were under severe renovation. My only agenda for this church was to see Michelangelo's works. They were for the Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici called Night and Day and opposite that was the Tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici, Evening and Morning.



Walking along the river in Florence.. Went to Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence. It was the only bridge to have escaped the bombing during the WWII. Now, it is home to a whole ton of shops selling gold jewelery.

We were watching the sun setting on the bridge when i met.... this old sweet kind looking Italian man. He came up to talk to us while we were watching a performance on the bridge. I thought that he was going to be telling us stories of old Florence, instead, he kept telling us how rich he was and how he stayed at THAT APARTMENT near the bridge and how he could give us a key. -l- Getting picked up by a really old Italian guy who looks like a whole bottle of Viagra will kill him first before seeing ANY performance. Priceless.

Day 2 :

Headed to the world famous Uffizi museum, where it houses one of the greatest collection of Italian art. Thanks to the last heir of the Medici family who donated the family's entire art collection to the city under the condition that the collection may never leave Florence. I waited close to 2 hours to get in, it felt like the world's slowest queue. To all my dear friends heading there, please get your ticket online way in advance. PLEASE.

Not allowed to take photos inside, the collection included Sandro Botticelli's Primavera, The Birth of Venus, The Adoration of the Magi. The Birth of Venus was totally different from what i expected. The colors were muted, dull almost but the total effect was pleasing and not crude or in your face. It was then I knew why high quality poster prints of the works of the Masters were so expensive. Coloring, tints, any of these can make a dramatic change in how the masterpiece is portrayed.



Ended the day at Piazzale Michelangelo, having a vintage point all over Florence.

Day 3:

Had breakfast at the Mercato Centrale where there were lots of little shops selling pastries, coffee and food.

Decided to take it slow today and went to Palace Pitti. Another palace that used to house the Medici family, it was formerly owned by the Pitti family before one of their daughters married the Medici.


The palace now houses the Boboli Gardens, Palatine Gallery, Modern Art Gallery, Royal Apartments, Silver Museum, Porcelain Museum, Costume Museum. My ticket only covered the Palatine Gallery and the Modern Art Gallery. Unfortunately, I couldn't take photos inside. But i saw Raphael's Madonna & Child. I remember being so stunned at the painting that I simply just stood numbly in front of it, trying to take in the Madonna's gentleness, the use of colors, the affection.

Day 4:
I wanted to go to the Bargello where the Renaissance sculptures were displayed but I was too late for it as it was only opened for limited hours which made me rather disappointed and pissed-off. What sort of world-class museum opens only from 815am - 150pm ??


Went to Palazzo Vecchio, the one-time home of the Medicis.


Went off by myself to Santa Croce, the largest Franciscan church in the world, also the burial grounds to various great Italians.

Again, the altar & the Donatello statues were under renovation, so I could not see them. Instead, I found myself taking photos of the tombs of

Galileo

Dante, among many more such as Michelangelo and Machiavelli and a memorial to Florence Nightingale.

Damn, it is only now that I am looking at the enlarged photos do i realise how blur they are most of the time. *sad*

All Roads lead to Rome

Now that i'm officially broke and skipping my Germany trips. (The round trip train tickets would have cost me 200 + Singapore, easily 3 times my air tickets there ... Germany .. I will be there one day, just not this year..Sorry C! Your description of Germany was fantastic, but my bank account failed to yield a few more zeroes just before the decimal point. )

I'm writing about my earlier 2 week trip in Italy during September before I arrived in Dublin. My Italy stretch actually started in Rome.

Day 1 : Rome
We arrived at our hostel located near the Vatican City and not knowing where to start, we randomly took the train and came out via Piazza Della Repubblica ..

We struck gold and found Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri just opposite the road. The church was actually built around an even older monument called Baths of Diocletian. When the church was being built, Michelangelo designed the ceiling which I snapped a photo of.


The Famous Trevi Fountain ~ When we got there, it was CRAWLING with people. I almost couldn't get a photo of the fountain without someone's head/hand/leg/hair/misc body parts in it.


The Pantheon - Built around AD125, its architecture is unique with a hole in the middle of the dome. Still a church today, walking inside is a solemn, awe inspiring experience. Given the fact that there's a deliberately designed hole in the middle of the ceiling, there are little holes in the ground to drain rain water seeping in.



Plaza Nanova - It has the famous fountain called Fountain of the Four Rivers by Berlini. Unfortunately, maybe I'm in Europe at the off-peak season, but like a common trend throughout my journey, it was closed for renovation. There was artists, cafes and restaurants in this square and I was told by one of my hostel-mates that at night, Nanova was one of the few areas in Rome for clubbing. Afterall, we were in the holy city, I wasn't sure where i could get a drink at all !


Ended the day on the Spanish Steps, where Audrey Hepburn came during Roman Holiday. Lots and LOTS of people trying to relieve that moment when i was there. -l- We got lost while walking here and it was only our first day. I felt like killing my friend. MURDEROUS RAGE. I was so tired by the time i got here, I couldn't comprehend crawling up those stairs much less walking back to my hostel at all. While all roads lead to Rome, the roads in Rome were uneven, unpaved, cobbled stones which make long stretches of walking really painful.


Day 2:
My spirits perked up dramatically as we start on visiting the Vatican City. From this point onwards, it became real to me that i was really in ITALY. OMG !

Started early to St Peter's Basilica.

My first Michelangelo - Pieta, behind this plastic sheet, standing at least 2 metres from it, did not distract me from its life-like, fluid movements. But like the Mona-Lisa, I really do wish that it was nearer.

Paid extra to go to the St Peter's treasury, that was interesting too, as it shown the tomb of the Pope that ordered St Peter to be built. Also, during the visit, I never realized that relics such as a saint's finger, hair, pieces of wood from the cross were framed, stored and worshiped as a holy relic. This might offend some people, but I kept thinking about how similar it was to how people worshiped the remains of holy Buddhist Monks (舍利子)


The Vatican Museum ! Sistine Chapel ! The freaking queue..........................................
When i was younger and pouring through my cousin's Europe photos, I have always felt a sense of envy when I saw his Vatican photos. Now I was here, going to see the Sistine Chapel ! But actually, the Sistine Chapel was fabulous (ironic that a Japanese TV Channel paid for its restoration but that's another thing). What was more fabulous was the incredible artwork, statues, the Raphael Rooms inside. The Sistine Chapel was just the icing on the cake.




After spending a good 3-4 hours in the Vatican Museum, the next great Italian experience. GELATO !



Day 3 :-


The Colosseum ! Or should I say the great Colosseum rip-off... The building in itself was pretty impressive but there's really nothing there. Just head in, snap photos and get out. My Lonely Planet description explained more than the audio guide that I picked out.


The Roman Forum. Or should i say, the Roman Ruins. It is a giant park with the remnants of the Roman houses and buildings of the great Emperors.


Sideview of Michelangelo's famous staircase to Piazza Campidoglio. It is a sideview, because when I was there, half of the stairs were blocked for renovation.

It was still summer when I was in Rome, and for a good part of the day, we were outdoors. It was hot, warm, stuffy and we were tired. Headed to one of the oldest cafes in Rome called Caffe Grecco around the Spanish Steps. I am a tourist. I KNOW that TIRAMISU was something invented by the Italians for tourists. Despite all of that, I ordered a tiramisu. It was divine, I tell you !



Ended the night with Trevi Fountain .. Goodbye Rome, I know I will be back one day..